Twin Peaks (Season Two Music and More)

Album Review

For Twin Peaks fans, hearing more of the series' immediately recognizable music is almost as much of a revelation as another chapter from Laura Palmer's diary. While "All New" is something of a misnomer, Twin Peaks: All New Season Two Music is a nice way to commemorate the release of Twin Peaks' second season on DVD after years of languishing in the video netherworld. This music isn't as iconic as David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti's first-season soundtrack, but like everything in Twin Peaks' second season, it's fascinatingly fragmented, while going deeper into the series' lore and emotions. The familiar themes of Twin Peaks are revisited and reconfigured: "Love Theme"'s minor-key melodrama gets chilly, discordant high notes underscore its tragic feel, while "Packards' Vibration" sets the "Bookhouse Boys" melody to vibraphone, adding some whimsy to its menace. As Twin Peaks delved further into Laura's world and all the intrigue in that small Washington State town, the music followed, covering everything from gritty electric blues ("Drug Deal Blues") to rollicking piano pieces ("Hayward Boogie") to barbershop quartet harmonies ("Harold's Theme"), while still delivering the noirish jazz and dreamy atmospheres that defined Twin Peaks. Though Twin Peaks: All New Season Two Music's sound is more scattered, the duality of innocence and corruption is drawn more sharply. "High School Swing" radiates sock-hop joy, and "Audrey's Prayer" is luminously pure, especially when compared to the raunchy bump and grind of "Blue Frank" and "I'm Hurt Bad"'s lurid brass and organ swells. Even more than Twin Peaks, this soundtrack captures the feeling of dusk turning into evening and all the promise — good and bad — that night brings. In Twin Peaks, "nightlife" means that the night has a life and mind of its own: "Night Bells'" rhythms rustle ominously, and a palpable dread runs through "Dark Mood Woods/The Red Room" and "Laura's Dark Boogie," where the bass is so low that it's felt more than heard. However, Twin Peaks: All New Season Two Music's most striking moment is "Just You." Sung by Sheryl Lee, Lara Flynn Boyle and James Marshall, it's the most heartbreakingly lonely love song that Ritchie Valens never recorded, with the trio's vocals echoing out into emptiness. Like all of Lynch and Badalamenti's songs with lyrics, the song manages to imbue well-worn sentiments like "together forever in love" with ambiguity that makes them compelling all over again — and that kind of familiar mystery haunts every part of Twin Peaks' world.