‘Cruise Sings Lynch’ in Stereo Review from August 1990

Following the success of the first season of Twin Peaks, people rediscovered Julee Cruise’s 1989 album, “Floating Into The Night.” Prior to Sept. 11, 1990, it was the only way to find songs heard in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s wonderful and strange show. Her release was reviewed by countless music journalists including Alanna Nash for the August 1990 issue of “Stereo Review.”

WHAT IS STEREO REVIEW?

Ziff-Davis first published as “HiFi & Music Review” in 1958 as part of group of magazines then available for the individual interested in high fidelity home record and equipment (the other major ones being “Audio” and “High Fidelity”). According to WorldRadioHistory.com, the magazine changed its name to “HiFi Review” in 1959. Two years later, it became “HiFi/Stereo Review” to reflect the “growing use of stereophonic technology in recordings and broadcasts.”

In 1968, the magazine became “Stereo Review,” which simplified the name and better reflected the “broad shift to stereophonic reproduction.” In the late 1980s, the magazine was acquired by CBS Magazines  and in 1989 it absorbed High Fidelity magazine.

In 2000, the magazine changed names again to became “Sound and Vision” with a focus on home theatre.

I remember getting this magazine in the late 1980s when I was first beginning a small side job as a disc jockey for parties and dances.

WHO IS ALANNA NASH?

Born in Louisville, Kentucky on Aug. 16, 1950, Alanna Nash holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is the author of several acclaimed books. She is a 1972 graduate of Stephens College. She is a feature writer for Entertainment Weekly, USA Weekend, and The New York Times

According to Simon and Schuster, Nash is also a longtime chronicler of popular culture. She is the author of five books, including “Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia,” “Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch,” which was the basis for the feature film Up Close and Personal, and “Dolly,” a 1978 biography of Dolly Parton which included material gathered from a long interview with the iconic singer that place over the course of several days.

Nash also contributed articles and reviews to “Stereo Review” magazine in the 1990s.

“CRUISE SINGS LYNCH” BY ALANNA NASH

Nash’s review of Cruise’s “Floating into the Night” is found on page 79 of the Aug. 1990 issue (Vol. 55, No. 8). It was accompanied by a photograph of Julee taken by David Lynch. Below is a transcription of the long out-of-print article.

“How do you describe an album written and produced by the eccentric film and television director David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Eraserhead) and performed by a young Iowa actress who describes herself as a pilot, a lifeguard, a gambler, a golfer, and a cook – a woman who says she’s obsessed with mass murderer John Wayne Lacey (“You know, because he was a clown and everything”) and whose husband edits Norman Vincent Peale’s Guideposts?

Well, you start by mentioning that the record, ‘Floating into the Night,’ grew out of Cruise’s performance of ‘Mysteries of Love,’ a most unorthodox love song, on the Blue Velvet soundtrack, and then you say that it contains songs from both Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, Lynch’s compelling, perverse Tv murder-mystery series. Next you quickly add that Cruise thinks of herself as an actress who happens to sing.

That’s the key. This is mood music of a different kind, a sort of pure whispering correctly described by Cruise as “white, white sound – a white angel sound,” with no variation in emotion, volume, or tone and not the first hint of vibrato or traditional vocal technique.

The point, of course, was not to showcase a singer but to capture the dreamy, stream-of-consciousness air of Lynch’s cinematic work. With composer Angelo Badalamenti providing the ghostly synth track and adding piano, guitar, sax, and clarinet in various feathery combinations, Lynch’s “lyrics” describe what he hears in his head. Sample: “Shadow in my house/The man he has brown eyes/She’ll never go to Holly-wood/Love moves me.” And no, that’s not taking things out of context.

Like most of Lynch’s work, ‘Floating into the Night‘ is at once transfixing and tedious, profound and pathetic, mind-expanding and nonsensical. As for his choice of singer, a Midwesterner who fancies Orange Julius drinks from a shopping mall, it is well to remember that Lynch delights in finding the bizarre and macabre in what appears to be the most normal of circumstances – the body of the high-school homecoming queen, for example, washed up on a lake shore in the idyllic town where “pies go when they die.” With huckleberry pie as the entrée, can an Orange Julius be far behind?”

JULEE CRUISE: Floating into the Night. Julee Cruise (vocals); instrumental accompaniment. Floating; Falling; I Remember; Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart; Mysteries of Love; Into the Night; I Float Alone; The Nightingale; The Swan; The World Spins. WARNER BROS, 25859-1, Cs 25859-4, 0 25859-2 (48 min).

This is the original publicity photo of Julee Cruise taken by Lynch to promote her 1989 album.

It’s great adding another review to the endless archive of all things related to Twin Peaks, which includes the angelic Julee Cruise.