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Much like New Wave Xmas, this entry in Just Can’t Get Enough is all peaks and valleys. Mostly valleys as there are six songs named “Halloween” jammed together towards the end of a fifteen-song compilation. That’s not even counting song titles with the word somewhere in them. There isn’t a lot of actual new wave music to be found, but rather a variety of alternative/college-rock radio staples of the 80s like Ministry, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Sonic Youth.
Does it matter that there’s less songs here specifically about Halloween but rather a plethora giving voice to horror movies and tropes? Not particularly as it creates the kitsch-but-macabre mood promised by the skull festooned with buttons, orange wig, and safety pins on the cover. The B-52’s, Oingo Boingo, and Rocky Horror’s “Time Warp” provide the party anthems, but they couldn’t find any room on this for the Cramps? C’mon, “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” “The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon,” “I Ain’t Nuthin’ But a Gorehound,” or “Surfin’ Dead” are practically begging to be added to the mix.
I wonder if they could’ve expanded their horizons a little more and included Blondie’s “The Attack of the Giant Ants,” a 50s sci-fi homage that feeds into the loopy, anarchic spirit of the compilation quite nicely. I mean, special dispensation was already made for a showtune. It would make logical sense for one of the genre’s biggest names and innovators to be given their due, but alas it was not meant to be.
There are a few fun instrumental spins through classic theme songs. MX-80 Sound throw the beloved John Carpenter theme into a noisy punk mosh pit. Comateens update “The Munsters Theme” with shiny synths and a breakneck pace managing to raise an arched brow and ironic smile in the process. But the less said about the novelties like Dave Edmunds’ “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” and Roky Erickson and the Aliens’ “Creature with Atom Brain” the better.
Never quite cohering into a whole, New Wave Halloween just has too many disparate moods and sounds going for it. The noisy mood pieces of Mudhoney doesn’t vibe well with the surprisingly mature melancholy of Ramones’ “Pet Sematary,” for instance. Sonic Youth’s droning “Halloween” is a far cry from the groovy ghoulies of Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man’s Party.” Still, there’s enjoyment to be had here in individual moments, mainly in the more obscure features on the album.
DOWNLOAD: Rocky Horror Picture Show – “Time Warp,” MX-80 Sound – “Theme from Halloween,” Comateens – “The Munsters Theme”
