Oingo Boingo - Gratitude - Non-Album Tracks (1984-1985)

In 1984, Danny Elfman released his first solo album "So-Lo." He would later go on to great fame and fortune as a movie soundtrack composer. But at the time, he was the main singer and songwriter for Oingo Boingo. But it turns out it wasn't really a solo album at all. The other musicians were the rest of Oingo Boingo, and it was mainly billed a solo album due to some kind of problem with the record company.

But the problem was that some if it just wasn't up to the standard Oingo Boingo had set with their previous albums. In my opinion, about half of the songs were excellent, and the other half were forgettable. So what I've done is taken other stray Oingo Boingo songs from 1984 or 1985 and replaced the weaker songs to make a really solid album. Luckily, there's just enough material to do this.

By the way, since the thin fiction of this album being an Elfman solo album no longer holds, I figured it was no longer fitting to call it "So-Lo." So I picked the title of the hit song from the album instead.

The first five songs are from the "So-Lo" album. The next three were officially released as well, from soundtrack and complication albums. The song "I Stand Defeated" is an unreleased outtake. Finally, I've included the single version of their biggest hit song, "Weird Science." I've included it because it's significantly different from the album version, which has become the most commonly known version. The biggest difference is length: the album version is over six minutes long, whereas this version is less than four minutes long. I prefer this version.

This album is 40 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

The bonus track is a cover of "Sunshine of Your Love." This comes from a rehearsal session, but the sound quality isn't that good. I used the audio editing program X-Minus to boost the vocals, which helped some, but only some.

01 Gratitude (Oingo Boingo)
02 Cool City (Oingo Boingo)
03 It Only Makes Me Laugh (Oingo Boingo)
04 Tough as Nails (Oingo Boingo)
05 Everybody Needs (Oingo Boingo)
06 Something Isn't Right (Oingo Boingo)
07 Bachelor Party (Oingo Boingo)
08 Take Your Medicine (Oingo Boingo)
09 I Stand Defeated (Oingo Boingo)
10 Weird Science [Single Version] (Oingo Boingo)

Sunshine of Your Love [Edit] (Oingo Boingo)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15264847/OingBo_1984-1985_Gratitde_atse.zip.html

The cover art is kind of curious, in that it's extremely similar to the cover art of "So-Lo," and yet totally different. That's because the back cover of that album displayed an alternate version of the same exact scene. So I used that. Of course, I changed the text too.