Buy it... if you consider yourself any collector of Danny Elfman's music, for this compilation contains fascinating material from early in his career.

Avoid it... if you have only either a casual interest in the composer's works or no tolerance for Elfman's wackier, comedic side.

Elfman

Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1: (Danny Elfman) Most fans of rocker-turned-composer Danny Elfman fell in love with his music in the late 1980's, entranced by his ability to both entertain with wacky orchestral idea and melt hearts with his extraordinary sense for the melodramatic. Even the most devoted fans of the composer will admit that the he has produced some (lovably) strange music in his career. The "Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1" compilation of early Elfman film and television music, covering 1985 to 1990, serves up a healthy dose of vintage material, much of which remains difficult or impossible to find in other commercial form. A second volume of "Music for a Darkened Theatre" released six years later would feature samplings of Elfman's scores from 1991 to 1996 (primarily) on two CDs. Now decades after the fact, you cannot say that Elfman's music has followed a distinct pattern as he has matured in the role of a film music composer. But in 1991, all one would have to do is listen to Edward Scissorhands and "Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1" to indeed notice an early pattern. From the rock sounds of Oingo Boingo, Elfman was on a course in 1990 to vault himself into the stars of orchestral soundtrack legends, with Batman albums flying off of music store shelves in record numbers. But, as Elfman would have it, his career would proceed like a whirlwind of stylistic experimentation and ventures into the unknown, punctuated by a series of efforts in the late 1990's that barely resembled his early, most popular works. His knack for being consistently unpredictable continued well into the 2000's. On "Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1," though, you hear an excellent cross-section of this talent across the entire range which brought Elfman into the forefront in the first place. Suites from Batman, Nightbreed, and Darkman provide the bulk of the serious, orchestral material, and are all well assembled. Every time you see another performing group kill one of these scores in a poor arrangement (and Batman especially) you have to wonder why they just don't take a cue from Elfman's own choices for suites here. He does a remarkable job of choosing the most interesting and superior cues for inclusion in the suites, with only a little evidence of editing noticeable to the most ardent fans of the original, fuller albums.

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For the strictly orchestral fans who will mostly appreciate the above-mentioned scores, there is a significant amount of Elfman's pop-inspired electronic material on this compilation of which to be weary. The 1986-1988 pieces, such as Midnight Run and Wisdom, present the more hip and stylish side of Elfman's sensibilities, though these degenerate into pure comedy in Hot to Trot and Face Like a Frog. The latter score's selection here is described by Elfman as "midnight madness" and easily stands as one of the most unstable, deranged pieces of film music to ever be recorded (not to mention being of questionable listenability). The television score selections are each interesting in their own right, but they often run too briefly to establish a distinct mood. Thus, the latter half of the album is as inconsistent of a listening experience as you might expect. The Pee Wee music on the album is certainly creative, if not successful in perpetuating a sick, carnival sort of atmosphere (people with a built-in pervert meter could have problems with it; it's not surprising that the title "Pee Wee's Love Theme" strikes an off chord). Those fans for whom Pee Wee music doesn't remind of perverts will likely be impressed by the sheer energy of these pieces. The album finishes with one of Elfman's most sought after early scores, unavailable on commercial album and very reminiscent of Beetlejuice in its morbid mood. The suite presented here from Scrooged will service the needs of most Elfman collectors for music from that early orchestral work. On the whole, both "Music for a Darkened Theatre" albums are the equivalent of promotional samplers for the composer, packaged neatly into an attractive commercial form. As listening experiences (as is the case with most samplers), it is difficult to sit down and enjoy the album from beginning to end unless you are among the most devoted fans of the composer. For more casual Elfman fans, as well as the orchestral film music collector in general, the second "Music for a Darkened Theatre" double-CD set is a more advisable purchase, because it presents a wider range of works with equally strong selection choices by the composer himself. But for those Elfman fanatics, it's hard to go wrong with "Music for a Darkened Theatre: Volume 1." It'll be a whole lot of fun and it'll definitely reaffirm why you love the guy's music. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.18 (in 61 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 115,373 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.