Experimental rock outfit "Xiu Xiu" (pronounced shoe-shoe) released an album of covers from the hit David Lynch TV show "Twin Peaks," a show known for its already brilliant soundtrack of original songs, and it's one that any "Twin Peaks" fan will find. The album is cleverly titled "Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks," and not only does it do justice to the source material of the unmistakable "Twin Peaks" tunes, but it elevates them and mixes and mashes them into something different, something dark, ambient, surreal, even beautiful, a real experience of a record. This is an album that's been out a year and a half by now, but hey, never too late to recommend something (and plus I've only just recently gotten into it myself).
This is a weird record. "Twin Peaks" fans will recognize, at their core, these 12 songs, adding up to just over an hour of music, are faithful renditions of the cult classic TV Show's soundtrack, but just under the surface of these songs (much like "Twin Peaks" itself) lies a dark, bubbling river of surreality. This is the kind of album that I wouldn't dare call an 'easy listen.' It's not something you could put on in the background while you did your laundry, or god forbid put on when a friend hands you the aux cord and says "your turn." This is the kind of record you're gonna want to listen to with your headphones on, to sort of pay attention to it, to get anything out of it. It's pretentious to say, but if you do, the experience this album evokes is well worth the effort.
Every song here brings something different; "Into the Night" brings this dark ambience, mysterious and playful and sinister, somewhat catchy, a track that reminds of the score from the movie "It Follows"; "Audrey's Dance," the recognizable, simple tune, accentuated with strange percussive blasts and digital, glitchy sounds; "Nightsea Wind" with its sweeping, somewhat organic and somewhat robotic wails; the terrifying "Blue Frank; Pink Room," which starts off with a literal scream, descending into these intense guitar riffs, that create this sort of cacophonous roller coaster feeling, winding up and snaking down and around, the whole thing propelled by this punk rock ferocity; "Sycamore Tree," sung in this distant, dramatic and drawn out voice, one that seems to echo from some distant, haunted place, crooned over a simple piano ballad.
To test the waters, as it were, for this album, I would recommend listening to the cover of "Falling," "Twin Peaks'" theme song, a cover which retains the same sort of ethereal romanticism, while adding that extra layer of distorted, surreal horror that this album brings to the songs of "Twin Peaks." If you like this one, you'll enjoy the ride that this album provides.
