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Good for Your Soul

Good for Your Soul
Good For Your Soul Album Art.jpg
Studio album by Oingo Boingo
Released July 26, 1983
Recorded Baby O Recorders and Crystal Industries, January 1983 - June 29, 1983
Genre New wave, ska
Length 41:42
Label A&M
Producer Robert Margouleff
Oingo Boingo chronology
Nothing to Fear
(1982)Nothing to Fear1982
Good for Your Soul
(1983)
So-Lo
(1984)So-Lo1984
Singles from Good for Your Soul
  1. "Wake Up (It's 1984)"
    Released: July 1983

Good for Your Soul is the third album by Oingo Boingo, released in 1983. It was the band's last album to be released on A&M Records. It was produced by Robert Margouleff. The record continues the unorthodox arrangements that the band had become known for, while moving in a softer direction than their previous work.

Frontman Danny Elfman had become tired of fans' and critics' expectations that he consistently write high energy, fast-paced songs, as well as his frequent use of falsetto in his singing, and therefore decided to bring a new level of diversity to the songwriting of the album. The songs "Fill the Void" and "Nothing Bad Ever Happens" showcase the band's African and ska influences and well as Elfman's softer change in vocal style. The album's subject matter is also poetically darker than on previous releases, such as themes of the supernatural in "Dead or Alive" and the warped ballad "Pictures of You".

Several pieces were recorded as demos but omitted from the final album, remaining officially unreleased. One outtake, Lightning, was resurrected for their following album release So-Lo (1984). The song "Lost Like This" was also written and recorded during these sessions, but did not surface until many years later on the 1994 album Boingo with a new orchestral arrangement. The brief instrumental track "Cry of the Vatos," named after drummer Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez, contains a back-masked message jokingly promoting Christianity to its listeners.

The music video accompanying "Nothing Bad Ever Happens" depicts the band performing on a paradise island; Elfman appears watching TV, unaware that his house is being robbed behind him, referencing the lyrics of the first verse. He finishes taking a bath, before the tub catches fire, and catches sight of guitarist Steve Bartek being carried down the street by a lynch mob, but decides to ignore. The video ends with Elfman serving the singing severed heads of the band's horn section to three upper class diners, who at first appear shocked, but proceed to eat regardless. The paradise island from the start of the video then appears to get hit by a nuclear bomb while the band continue playing. Elfman said of the song and video in 1986, "It's about somebody who chooses to ignore his neighbors problems and doesn't get involved - it's really about getting involved... We can't live like ostriches".


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Wikipedia

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