The Sounds Of ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’ | David Lynch’s Audio-Visual Master Work

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6 months on from his passing, we revisit David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,’ his and Badalamenti’s audio-visual master work

On the 18th June, the Truro Plaza was graced with an audiovisual triumph. In the long wake of David Lynch’s passing, ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me‘ was shown as part of ‘Pat’s Film Club’. At last, the long revered soundtrack was back on the big screen – in all of its manic and strange beauty. Angelo Badalamenti’s score is both punishing and mesmerising, and is fascinating in how it differs from the score of the TV show. 

From its opening shots of blue TV static and a demented muffling of organs and trumpet, the opening theme to ‘Fire Walk With Me‘ is a twisted inversion to the comparatively serene TV show opening. It is slow and plodding, contains jarring dissonance and morose melodies, and is therefore the perfect accompaniment to the now iconic shot of a TV screen being smashed.

This functions as a sonic and visual language, warning the audience that we are no longer frolicking in the quirks and cosiness of the TV show. 

A highlight for audiences over many years has been Badalamenti’s blues-rock laden ‘The Pink Room’. It boasts the most streams of the entire soundtrack, and it makes a stand out appearance on the band Xiu Xiu’s reworks of the soundtrack. It is of a slow tempo like the main theme, yet it stampedes rather than plods along.

To confess, I always felt this song (like the scene it appears in) outstays its welcome; the big screen, however, ground that feeling away. It is a piece that is every bit as intoxicating as the decadence that is depicted on screen. It takes the blues rock sections of the TV show’s score and escalates them into a drunken frenzy.

Ironically, the perfect antidote to all this is the piece we hear just before. Julee Cruise’s vocals are synonymous with ‘Twin Peaks‘ at this point. Here, we witness one of her best performances, and it is easily one of the most heartbreaking scenes Lynch has given us. ‘Questions in a World of Blue’ is a pretty and somber tune, with simple yet assertive lyrics.

They deal in losing the person you once were and changing in ways that you can’t control. It’s the perfect fit then for Laura Palmer, who we see weeping as her life is falling into disarray. Cruise’s breathy and smooth delivery acts like a lullaby, perhaps one the final bittersweet moments the audience is treated to – it’s all down hill from here.

For me though, the real highlight comes in the very final moments of the film. In my opinion, it’s the best audiovisual moment Lynch has ever graced us with – which in a sea of works such as ‘Eraserhead’, ‘Mulholland Drive,‘ and ‘The Elephant Man‘ – is certainly saying a lot.

Without revealing too much, ‘The Voice of Love’ is one of the most haunting pieces of music Badalamenti has composed. It calls back to the instrumentation we’re familiar with from the TV show, thin layers of angelic synths at the forefront, but its placement in the film is bittersweet. It perfectly compliments the final shots of Laura in the lodge, summing up her story and darkened persona perfectly.

By now the audience are leaving the Plaza, some looking mesmerised, some looking confused, and others just looking slightly irritated. Although a patchy work, ‘Fire Walk With Me‘ displays some of Lynch’s most arresting film making.

It shares every inch of darkness and surrealism as a ‘Mulholland Drive‘, or a ‘Lost Highway‘, but instead of a slick noire sheen, it boasts some of the most vibrant and colour rich shots you can view in a Lynch film.

It sublimely blends dense surreal imagery with urban American civility. Badalamenti’s score supplements this perfectly and creates a sonic palette we continue to hear all these years later as ‘Twin Peaks.‘

Listen to the ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’ soundtrack here:

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