Movies · TV

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Soundtrack to be Re-Released This Month

By  · Published on January 6th, 2017

It is happening again.

The birds sing a pretty song and there is always music in the air.

About a week ago, NME reported that Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtrack to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) is going to be re-released in 2017. It has since been confirmed that the Death Waltz Recording Company will reissue the vinyl soundtrack on January 25th – less than a month away!

This is yet another treat for Twin Peaks fans patiently awaiting season 3 of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s televisual masterpiece. Many fans of the original TV series were disappointed by Lynch’s 1992 film, but it has experienced a critical re-evaluation in the past few years. The film is absolutely different from the series, replacing some of the quirky humor and lovable characters with trauma, sadness, and terror. While the show includes lots of eccentric characters and situations, there is always an underlying sense of trauma, sadness, and violence. The film brings this undercurrent to the surface and dials down the comedy, portraying the terrifying last days of Laura Palmer’s life. Sheryl Lee gives one of the most intense and beautiful performances ever captured on film.

The music is also terrific. Music is incredibly important to the world of Twin Peaks – Angelo Badalamenti’s cool jazzy tunes and heartbreaking melodramatic pieces play a huge part in creating the unique atmosphere of Twin Peaks. As Paste Magazine reports, Mondo Record Label Manager Spencer Hickman stated that the music from FWWM is more “brooding” and “dangerous” than the original series. Badalamenti won a Grammy award for “Theme From Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me”, the moody, ominous title track. There are similarities between the show and the film – the iconic Twin Peaks theme song, “Falling” plays over Laura’s first appearance – but Badalamenti also wrote entirely new material for the film. These 12 songs will be featured on Death Waltz’s re-release, and include “Questions in a World of Blue” performed by Julee Cruise, as well as Badalamenti’s pseudo-rap song, “A Real Indication” (it is really fabulous).

The new album will be released in a 2 LP set, with deep red colored vinyl, channeling the Black Lodge, red curtains, and cherry pie from the world of the show. The reissue will also feature liner notes by music critic Mark Kermode, and the Black Lodge floor-inspired cover artwork was designed by Sam Smith and packaged by Jay Shaw. Along with the album, select Alamo Drafthouse locations will be screening the film, as well as offering a bundle ticket for patrons to buy both the movie and the album.

It has been 25 years since Twin Peaks was canceled, and I don’t think anyone could have predicted it would return at all, let alone in such a beautiful way. The show will be returning for a new season on Showtime later this year, with much of the original cast returning, and David Lynch set to direct the new episodes. Mark Frost released his book, The Secret History of Twin Peaks in 2016, and we got a teaser video of David Lynch (as Gordon Cole, hearing aids and all) eating a donut. As our own H. Perry Horton wrote, Twin Peaks season 3 may be the most important TV event of 2017. This soundtrack re-release is just another bonus feature on the way to the new season. Personally, FWWM is one of my favorite films of all time, and I hope that this inspires people to give it another chance, and to fall in love with both the film and the music. They are both wonderful and strange.

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Actual film school graduate from Toronto. Always thinking and writing about queerness, feminism, camp, melodrama, and popular culture.