Twin Peaks: The Return- Soundtrack Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the return to Twin Peaks recently and a huge part of that was due to the extraordinary soundtrack. There are few composers as gifted as Angelo Badalamenti, who can create stunning unearthly sonic soundscapes that swell, ebb and flow whilst running the gamut of emotions from euphoria to earth-shattering sadness. His music is a key component of the series and at it's best enhances the visuals and what is seen on the screen.

David Lynch, who was the Director and Sound Designer for Twin Peaks: The Return, has said that “cinema is sound and picture, flowing together in time,” and this soundtrack conveys that sentiment well. This album is the companion to a separate collection of the music from the series that features guest stars who appeared at the Road House, usually at the end of an episode. This CD features mainly the instrumental music that Twin Peaks fans of old will be familiar with and some new ones thrown in for good measure.

  1. Twin Peaks Theme (Falling) – Angelo Badalamenti
  2. American Woman (David Lynch Remix) – Muddy Magnolias
  3. Laura Palmer’s Theme (Love Theme From Twin Peaks) – Angelo Badalamenti
  4. Accident / Farewell Theme – Angelo Badalamenti
  5. Grady Groove (feat. Grady Tate) – Angelo Badalamenti
  6. Windswept (Reprise) – Johnny Jewel
  7. Dark Mood Woods / The Red Room – Angelo Badalamenti
  8. The Chair – Angelo Badalamenti
  9. Deer Meadow Shuffle – Angelo Badalamenti
  10. Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima (with Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra) – Witold Rowicki/Krzysztof Penderecki
  11. Slow 30’s Room – David Lynch & Dean Hurley
  12. The Fireman – Angelo Badalamenti
  13. Saturday (Instrumental) – Chromatics
  14. Headless Chicken – Thought Gang (Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch)
  15. Night – Angelo Badalamenti
  16. Heartbreaking – Angelo Badalamenti
  17. Audrey’s Dance – Angelo Badalamenti
  18. Dark Space Low – Angelo Badalamenti

Badalamenti revisits old classics like the Twin Peaks theme, “Falling,” and “Audrey’s Dance” but also has six new compositions which are specific to scenes from the series. There are many other tracks on the album create by other composers and individuals and they are all great. Special mention must be made of Witold Rowicki’s “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima," which is performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra Warsaw. This piece is shown in the avant-garde nuclear tests in episode eight and is an assault on the senses that suits the abstract imagery of the creation of a death bringer and evil, in this case BOB.  Another track I particularly like is Johnny Jewel's Windswept, a relaxed jazzy number that recalls Badalamenti's style yet adds its own modern sheen. I checked out Jewel's Windswept LP and can say that it is a great album and well worth a listen in its own right.

As for the six Badalamenti pieces, they are stunning and worth a further look individually.

“The Chair” is from episode nine where Bobby Briggs is given a secret scroll of information by his mother from his father Garland. The chair has been in the Briggs’ living room since his father’s mysterious passing yet held the secret for 25 years. The track itself is suitably melancholic and has an air of sadness yet still has that trademark speck of hope.

“The Fireman” comes from the experimental arthouse episode eight, where we see The Giant create the golden globe containing the essence of Laura Palmer to combat the evilness of BOB who is released after the nuclear bomb tests in New Mexico. This is my favourite new composition from Badalamenti as it is a sombre, emotional piece which has a lot of power.

"Dark Mood Woods/ The Red Room" plays when Agent Cooper is in the Red Room and is trying to escape but gets confused in the mazelike space and also in the casino Mr Jackpots scene. It is otherworldy track with a deep brooding vibrating soundscape which slowly moved to and fro but later is interspersed with sharp jingles.

"Dark Space Low" comes at the end of the series as we are dealt the suckerpunch when Agent Dale Cooper, with Laura Palmer in tow, asks, "What year is this?" This piece has a kind of empty but longing feeling, like waking from a nightmare to find that you are in a worse situation.

"Night"plays after the scene when the Log Lady phones Hawk to say that she is dying. It is a heartrending scene, especially as the actress playing the Log Lady, Catherine Coulson, actually died of cancer four days after filming this scene) The track is somber and deeply sad yet beautiful in its melancholy. This track is the perfect eulogy to this wonderful charcater and actress.

"Heartbreaking" plays at the end credits of episode 11 and also when the homeless lady who won big at the casino, thanks to a fugue state Agent Dale Cooper, sees him again and tells her how he changed her life for the better. It is a heartwarming scene and even the 'badguy' Michum Brothers see good in the world and seem changed as a result. This is a beautiful piano piece which is full of hope and yearning.

"Accident/ Farewell Theme" plays in episode six when Richard Horne runs over a young boy crossing the road and Carl (Harry Dean Stanton) sees the boy's spirit leave the body as he comforts the mother. This track is ethereal ambience at its best, starting off full of sadness and despair but calming later, reflecting the shock and grief of the scene and the letting go.

Overall the Twin Peaks: The Return soundtrack is a triumph. It suited the mood of the series well and fit in when it was needed yet is still listenable in its own right. The soundtrack is an extremely atmospheric album and is worth a listen.

LINK- Twin Peaks: The Return- The Series So Far Review

LINK- The Secret History of Twin Peaks- Book Review

LINK- Xiu Xiu Cover the Twin Peaks Soundtrack

LINK- Twin Peaks Soundtrack Vinyl Re-release

LINK- Twin Peaks: The Return- Complete Series Review

Twin Peaks Retrospective

We are mere hours away from the return of Twin Peaks. After nearly 25 years, and that cliffhanger, the show is returning with many of the original cast as well as a veritable smörgåsbord of new characters and actors. 

I've been binge watching the original 29 episode run of series 1 and 2 on DVD over the past few weeks and recently read the Mark Frost book Secret History of Twin Peaks. I have loved immersing myself in the haunting world of Twin Peaks once again. 

Whilst doing the rewatch of the show certain images were as clear and vivid as I remembered them from 20 years ago when I first watched the show. David Lynch's visuals are very haunting without the sound but when you lay in Angelo Badalamenti's unforgettable score and the sound effect mix something magical, almost operatic happens. The sound and images truly complement one another, so much so that several images have been seared into my consciousness; the swinging traffic lights, the dark trees swaying in the breeze, the beautiful waterfall and the hues of brown that permeate the show. There is a poetry and synergy between the images and music that I haven't seen in any other TV series since.

The show itself moved at a leisurely pace, especially when compared to many modern shows, but it was never a slow show, there was always a sense of something lurking just beneath the surface; it could be something terrible, exciting or indeed magical - whatever it was it was never something boring... There was a wonderful dream-logic reality which meant that anything could happen at any point of the show. You want a backwards talking dwarf? Check. You want a unicorn? Check. You want a mysterious giant? Check. How many other shows could do that yet still make a sort of sense?

This unnerving other-worldliness of the series was hinted at in the pilot with the red room shown briefly, but it was really cemented in episode 2 when we meet the sinister backwards talking dwarf in a room of red curtains and chevron flooring.... All this added to the unnerving peculiarity of what could have become just another also-ran police procedural. However after the scene with the empty bottle in the forest and Buddhist philosophising you know you are watching something that is unique and special, how many other shows features FBI Agents trying to work out a murder's identity by trying to break a bottle with a stone?

Throughout the course of the entire show light and dark contrasted heavily, often within one episode, for example the cliffhanger of season 1 when Cooper is shot and the oldest waiter in the world serves him (slowly) whilst he is bleeding to death on the floor, Cooper waits patiently and politely for the waiter's return.

This weirdness continues with the introduction of the giant, a figure famous across nearly all cultures. The duality between the giant and the dwarf makes you consider dualities further and adds to the light / dark dynamic... Are humans just the playthings of creatures and being from another realm? 

When the killer is revealed in episode 14 the question of personal responsibility and whether we are responsible for our own actions Is asked. Is our life predetermined? Are we merely puppets in a greater play or do we have to accept personal responsibility for our actions, even when we may have no control over them?

The series does undoubtedly dip after the reveal of the murderer of Laura Palmer, with the introduction of the pine weasel and Benjamin Horne's spiritual epiphany, but after a few episodes it found its feet again with the introduction of antagonist Windom Earle,  further lore reveals with the Black and White lodge and a look at Agent Dale Cooper's past.

The series reaches a crescendo with episode 29, when David Lynch returned to helm the arthouse horror final episode which ended with the possession of Agent Cooper. Since then fan theories and video essays have abound as to what happened next but with the release of The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost, we have a small insight as to what happened to most of the characters of the show as well as the history of the area.

I cannot wait for the new series and hope that it takes me to a place both magical and strange. After 25 years I hope the wait was worth it, I have a firm belief that it will be.