• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Nov 15, 2011 Web Exclusive By Joseph Ragusa

Filmmaker, photographer, author, and painter David Lynch takes on another of the nine muses with his first solo full-length recording, Crazy Clown Time. The album sounds like a natural progression from the two evocative Lynch songs in his Dark Night of the Soul project with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. But now, Lynch has expanded from that to include songs that run the gamut of emotions and styles. From the rollicking opener “Pinky’s Dream” to the Portishead-like “I Know,” Crazy Clown Time proves Lynch has an enviable mastery of the music genre, even without his longtime film score partner Angelo Badalamenti. And the few pratfalls on the album, such as the amateurish techno song “Good Day Today,” are rare enough to ignore. And lest Lynch should stray too far into unfamiliar territory on some songs, longtime fans will appreciate such numbers as “Football Game” and “The Night Bell with Lightning” that recall music from the infamous One Eyed Jack’s bar scene in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

Crazy Clown Time is not the sort of album you’ll find yourself singing along to. The songs are much like his films, offering glimpses of often unsettling scenarios and leaving the audience to fill in the gaps to make sense of what’s being perceived. And like an actor, Lynch often takes on various personas, from the tattletale teen in the title song to the Hasil Adkins-like drawling avenger of “Football Game.” All throughout, Lynch succeeds in taking often innocuous subject matter and turning it into a dark, sometimes humorous, but always anxiety-ridden event. But then, isn’t that what we fans have always loved about his work? (www.davidlynch.com)

Author rating: 7/10