The Corpse Bride

Three-time Oscar-nominated Danny Elfman, one of Hollywood's most in-demand composers, continues his long-standing collaboration with innovative director Tim Burton for the soundtrack to the stop-motion animated feature Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.

Did composer Danny Elfman have enough juice for two movies by Tim Burton in a single year? His first 2005 outing, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is one of his all-time best, and the songs he wrote for each of that film's children are marvels of satirical invention. A few months later, both Burton and Elfman are back with The Corpse Bride, a stop-motion animated film in the vein of The Nightmare Before Christmas. This time it feels as if Elfman may have overextended himself. The composer has fun with Gothic atmospherics, (when in doubt, you can't go wrong with either a harpsichord or an organ) but the instrumentals feel a bit perfunctory. The best part about the album is hearing Elfman's ditties performed by a gaggle of top British actors such as Albert Finney, Joanna Lumley and Tracey Ullman on "According to Plan," and Helena Bonham Carter (surprisingly touching) and Jane Horrocks on "Tears to Shed." Elfman himself sings "Remains of the Day," a tune that tries just a little too hard to be zany; zaniness is achieved more subtly on the fourth and last vocal track, "The Wedding Song," a clever pastiche of light operetta. But it's on the last four tracks, credited to Bonejangles and His Bone Boys, that Elfman finally sounds as if he's having fun, letting loose with casual New Orleans-style jazz. --Elisabeth Vincentelli