From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig)
Subject: Just got the Twin Peaks FWWM soundtrack -- first thoughts
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 92 08:12:13 GMT
Organization: Starfleet Headquarters: San Francisco

Well, I snatched up the soundtrack when I first saw it tonight -- I
hadn't realized it would be out yet!  When's the movie coming out, by
the way?

The soundtrack has twelve songs on it.  Here are my first impressions
of them; read this is you're considering buying the soundtrack, but
don't read it if you don't want your opinion to be tainted!  ;)


"Theme From Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me": Rather nondescript jazz.
Nothing to make it sound Peakish, or to make it sound like any other
Peaks music.

"The Pine Float": More nondescript jazz.  This one doesn't sound
particularly Twin Peakish either, unfortunately.

"Sycamore Trees": The song from the very last episode of TP ("and I'll
see you... and you'll see me... under the sycamore trees").  As such,
it's _definitely_ Peakish.  :)

"Don't Do Anything (I Wouldn't Do)": More nondescript jazz.  This and
the first two songs sound like a quartet on Bourbon Street at two in
the morning -- nice and casual, good jazz, but...

"A Real Indication": Oh, my god... _painful_ to listen to.  Angelo
Badalamenti does VOCALS on this one.  Definitely David Lynchian, but
it feels more like it belongs in his previous movie (what was the name
of that, again?  Geez, I forget...)  It even sounds like the vocal
track was specially engineered to sound bad.  Triple-ugh.

"Questions In A World Of Blue": This one makes up for "Indication".
It's a new one sung by Julee Cruise, and she does it right; a nice,
gentle melody, with an airy harmony behind it.

"The Pink Room": A heavier beat, and more monotonous, than the others.
It almost sounds like background music; I'm interested to see where
they use it.  As a musical piece, though, it doesn't really tickle me,
because it has no melody; it's just a five-note sequence repeated
slowly over and over again.

"The Black Dog Runs At Night": Otherwise known as "Let's Pluck A Bass
Guitar For A Few Minutes".  No melody, but there is a voice that says
"Black dog runs at night" every now and then.

"Best Friends": I like this one.  A gentle melody, almost sad in a
way.  But it's still jazz, and not really Peakish.

"Moving Through Time": Yet more gentle jazz.  A little bit repetitive.
... no, make that a LOT repetitive.

"Montage from Twin Peaks": Now _this_ is good stuff.  It's a collage
of "Girl Talk", "Birds in Hell", "Laura Palmer's Theme", and "Falling"
(I've never heard of the first two before), and it's definitely got
that Twin Peaks feel to it.  Halfway through, though, it turns into
"Falling" (the song that played over the title credits of the TV
show), and it stays with that song throughout the rest of the piece.

"The Voice of Love": A very nice ending, done on two keyboards only.
Nice chords, and it's got that feeling of love/hope to it.


So, with the final tally being five songs I like, six I don't mind
listening to, and only one I DO mind listening to, I think I'd
recommend this soundtrack to a real Peaks diehard, but not to anyone
else -- it doesn't have as much to distinguish it as the original
"Sountrack from Twin Peaks" had.

Remember too that Julee Cruise has one album out: "Floating Into the
Night", which contains songs from Twin Peaks and one song from Blue
Velvet in addition to some other original ones of hers.  I'd recommend
that one for the distinctive sound.

Of course, once I see the movie, my whole opinion of this soundtrack
could change... :)

     << Brian >>

-- 
_/_/_/       Brian Kendig  Macintosh Jedi           Live never to be ashamed
 _/_/   Starfleet Captain  Oracle Employee         if anything you do or say
  _/  Intrepid Adventurer  Saturn SL2 Owner    is published around the world
      bskendig@netcom.com  New Age Music Fan    -- even if what is published
    Princeton '92! BSE/CS  Writer/Actor/Singer                   is not true.
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks