As if 15 to 20-somethings didn’t love the cult film enough already, musical mastermind Danny Elfman decided to give the Nightmare before Christmas soundtrack a reboot, by including popular artists to cover the songs.
Released on September 30th, 2008, Nightmare Revisited features artists such a Marilyn Manson, Flyleaf and Plain White T’s as the likes of Jack the Pumpkin King and Sally. Even Elfman himself rescored the opening and closing tracks to the album.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1. Overture – DeVotchKa
2. Opening – Danny Elfman
3. This Is Halloween – Marilyn Manson
4. Jack’s Lament – The All-American Rejects
5. Doctor Finkelstein/In the Forest – Amiina
6. What’s This? – Flyleaf
7. Town Meeting Song – The Polyphonic Spree
8. Jack and Sally Montage – The Vitamin String Quartet
9. Jack’s Obsession – Sparklehorse
10. Kidnap the Sandy Claws – KoRn
11. Making Christmas – Rise Against
12. Nabbed – Yoshida Brothers
13. Oogie Boogie’s Song – Rodrigo y Gabriela
14. Sally’s Song – Amy Lee
15. Christmas Eve Montage – Rjd2
16. Poor Jack – Plain White T’s
17. To the Rescue – Datarock
18. Finale/Reprise – Shiny Toy Guns
19. Closing – Danny Elfman
20. End Title – The Album Leaf
Although, personally, I’m not an uber fan of the film (in fact, some of the tracks were nightmares for me to revisit), there were also a lot of great reboots of songs. For instance, by far my favorite track on the record was from Plain White T’s performing “Poor Jack.” When I originally saw they were featured on the album, I was a little confused, but after listening to the track, they really pulled it off. T’s definitely had the spark and charisma the track originally portrayed in the film, but had a certain little acoustic edge to it that was nice.
Rise Against performing “Making Christmas” was also an odd choice for me, but they really rocked it. The intensity the singer brings to the song is almost border-line creepy, which fits right in with the theme of the movie.
Honestly, I thought Marilyn Manson, KoRn and Amy Lee were almost too obvious of picks to perform some of the tracks, so they delivered what one would expect.
Of course, where there’s good, there’s also bad, and in this case there were just as many misses as hits. The biggest disappointment (but sadly expected as so) was from Flyleaf, performing “What’s This?” In the original film, this is the part where Jack the Pumpkin King is discovering the likes of Christmas for the first time. You can hear the curiosity and excitement in his voice throughout the song, which is to be expected. However, Flyleaf just performs it as if it’s just another song, which absolutely destroys any essence of the song’s original intent.
What really got to me though was “Oogie Boogie’s Song” on the reboot. There were no lyrics, when obviously in the original movie gives the best scene the film offers. It’s spooky, electrifying and hands down the real Halloween element in the movie, but since this track was turned into an instrumental (never mind a boring instrumental), it destroys part of the movie. I almost forgot that part even existed while listening to this.
In the end, however, every super fan of Nightmare before Christmas will run out and buy this simply for what it is. I wouldn’t say it’s a total waste of money, but if you’re a big enough fan and would not appreciate huge mixes of the original score, stick to the original.
By Tessa Petrocco