Album Review: David Lynch - The Big Dream

There's a hypnotic quality to the tracks on this release that gives weight to the decision by David Lynch to go with The Big Dream as the title for this album. Lynch has crafted an LP that could very well have been the score for a pseudo-nightmare featuring wine-red curtains, backwards-talking midgets and beached prom-queen corpses. While not quite the Twin Peaks soundtrack, as an exercise in creepiness of the swampy-blues variety, this album succeeds, also providing Lynch's doting audience with more of what they crave- the opportunity to tell people that they “totally got what Lynch was trying to do there”.

The title track and album opener is unsettling in its slow pace, like musical quicksand dragging one under, and contrasts nicely with the more up-tempo sleaze of Star Dream Girl, which could easily have made it to the opening credits of True Blood. 

Unfortunately, Lynch's inbred-hick-sounding voice really isn't the best, not just in terms of tone, but timing. Thankfully though, the music is powerful enough in its brooding intensity to make it easy to block out the nasally vocals, leaving an unsettling collection of songs that could have been penned by Chris Isaak on a crystal meth comedown.

Last Call is a standout, purely for the phrase “last call, time, gentlemen please”, an evocative, repeated line that paints a picture of despondent bar flies, whiskey and jadedness. This world-weariness permeates much of the album and combined with the glut of tremolo guitars and plodding bass creates a mood that smacks of '50s film noir gumshoe paranoia filtered through a modern mixing desk. 

The Big Dream provides the ideal soundtrack for a poker night, if it involves high stakes, ex-cons and hard liquor drunk neat with no chaser.