Review: Oingo Boingo - Nothing to Fear (1982)

Now we're talkin'! Dial down the weirdness of Only a Lad a bit, make the herkys a little less jerky, add some mood, some real mood for chrissakes, but keep the fun and dancey and creepy completely intact, you've got a monster of sophomore release. Not a literal monster. Don't worry, there's nothing to fear.

But man, it's hard to keep my subjective biases suppressed in this case. Nothing to Fear is an absolutely exhilarating record; ten songs with ten distinct personalities and not one clunker among them. Not one. No, I don't care what your opinion is at all. I'm the one here with the sub-par and visually unpleasant blog with an equally sub-par music review section, not you, Todd. I don't care if you don't like "Running on a Treadmill" because Elfman "sounds like a pussy", Todd. Cork it.

I'm just impressed that Oingo Boingo was able to improve upon the already great Only a Lad without losing an iota of what made the band unique and enjoyable in the first place. The energy is still in full gear, the horn arrangements are mixed in seamlessly with the keyboards to maintain that ska-tinged new wave-y trademark sound, Elfman's voice is as frighteningly erratic as ever (even more so!), lyrics are loaded with sarcastic wit and sardonic vocal delivery, and every little nook and cranny of each song is packed to the gills with hooks.

But this is most certainly not Only a Lad Pt. 2, far from it. Nothing to Fear overall is noticeably heavier, with a more prominent use of guitar riffs and distortion. Tracks like "Insects" and "Nothing to Fear (But Fear Itself)" showcase some prime riffage you might expect from the heavy metal bands of yore, apparently even Black Sabbath-y at times to some ears (I personally don't make this connection). I also feel that the songs a little more organized and less aimless this time around, with more conventional song structure and fewer randomly located phrases with odd time signatures. Elfman broadens his emotional vocal range in a big way, adequately bouncing from frantic to wistful to paranoid to gleeful to gloomy and everything else, as the mood demands, and really showcases how talented and criminally underrated his singing really is, or was, as the case may be. Since the band's breakup in 1995, it's possibly that Elfman hasn't professionally sung a note since. His pipes might be all rusted and shit now, you know?

I suppose this album deserves a track-by-track in-depth analysis, if I'm going to be so bold as to state that every song is good (go away, Todd):

• "Grey Matter" is the opener, starting off with a few bars of contemplative, dreamy synth and then the driving bassline kicks in serving as the backbone to this somewhat confrontational anthem against groupthink and close-mindedness ("They say you lost the ability to even think/That your tiny little brain slipped down the kitchen sink"). The nice touch here are the rollicking xylophone passages that sound positively tribal, which is a cool contrast to the "ultra-modern" slick '80s production.
• "Insects" is fun, gritty tune very much in the spirit of Only a Lad's nervous, desperate energy. No real message here as far as I can tell, just a dumb, hilarious song, one of the best on this record ("Just like little diamonds in the sky/Insects buzzing in my eye/Buzzing insects make me want to DANCE!")
• "Private Life" might contend with "Whole Day Off" as the least memorable, but it's a very good claustrophobic and bitter Smiths-esque, or perhaps even Cure-esque, song about introversion and the paradoxical feelings of self-satisfaction, alienation, and social anxiety that comes along with it.
• "Wild Sex (In the Working Class)" brings in an industrial edge with smatterings of clanging metal percussion. When you work a blue collar 9-to-5 job, banging around after work is the most exciting thing to look forward to! Fuck off, Bruce Springsteen, Oingo Boingo really connects with middle-class America.
• "Running on a Treadmill" is the one that Todd hates (Todd isn't real, you guys, heh heh), but you probably won't! Straightforward metaphor about going nowhere in a relationship with catchy horns and clean, melodious singing from Elfman. Soulful! Emotional, and not even in an asshole ironic way!
• "Whole Day Off" is the other contender for Most Forgettable on Nothing to Fear, as it's not very hooky by comparison to the other tracks around it, but don't dismiss it at all. It's a slow funk, swaggering lazy-on purpose tale of a guy who comes up with odder and odder excuses to stay home from work. Lyrics hint at the narrator unaware of his obvious mental disorder, but in a funny way! "Have you seen my garden?/It is most peculiar/Have you seen my garden?/Nothing there that grows looks anything at all like plants/I hear their voices/Let's take the whole day off" is one of my favorite Oingo Boingo verses of all time.
• "Nothing to Fear (But Fear Itself)" is back to basics. Fantastic fucking song, with skin-crawling lyrics reminiscent of "Little Girls" or "Nasty Habits" from Only a Lad intended to make the listener feel uneasy ("Hey little girl won't you come this way/Won't you let me buy you candy or perhaps a chocolate shake/Or perhaps some nice cocaine?/Or perhaps a little kiss?/Or perhaps a ride in my big car?/Perhaps a ride in my big car?/Won't you make an old man happy?/Won't you make an old man happy?/Won't you let me show you paradise?/Don't ask your mother for advice/There's nothing to fear but fear itself"). Perhaps the best hook on the whole record comes after the sped-up tempo chorus, where it slows down back to normal speed and Elfman ominously reports "The temperature is starting to drop" completely with an echo on "to drop" that continuously lowers in pitch. These Boingo bitches are smart cookies, aren't they?
• "Why'd We Come" is NOT about those "You're NOT The Father!" episodes of the Maury Povich White Trash Festival of Tears, but rather about the evolution of mankind and how we're not any further along in modern society than we were in the stone ages! Duh! Good use of Eastern scales on this one. Best part: the ultra sarcastic delivery of "We're civilized/Isn't that nice?!".
• "Islands" is the most stylistically different song in the bunch. Moody and monotone, almost like Joy Division in its hopelessness and despair without the tortured, suicide-committing frontman of the band angle. Again, the theme is isolation and loneliness, but, as a contrast to "Private Life", "Islands" feels suffocatingly agorophobic in its sprawl. Absolutely haunting in its message and vocal delivery. Underrated as all fuck.
• "Reptiles and Samurai" ends the album on an upbeat, yet bewildering, note. Another good use of Eastern scales, bringing in the ancient Japanese vibe, the song purports to show the difference between reptiles and samurai, of course, tongue-and-cheekly (tonguely-and-cheek?). People have tried to make interpretations on real meaning behind this one, but I think the more you read into it the dumber things get. Just enjoy it for what it is, a catchy, stupid song about reptiles and samurai.

There you have it, a laboriously compiled in-depth analysis of an album nobody wants to hear. But you should hear it, because it's Very Good. And in a year when Toto's "Africa" was topping the charts, Nothing to Fear was probably a much-needed breath of fresh air for the disturbed minority. And no, I don't even like Toto's "Africa" ironically like I'm supposed to.

VERY GOOD