The ethereal voice of Julee Cruise is as essential to the world of Twin Peaks as cherry pie and Dale Cooper’s dreams, yet we may have never heard it if visionary director David Lynch had more funds. He really wanted to include This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren” in Blue Velvet, but he couldn’t afford the rights. Composer Angelo Badalamenti, who in short order would become Lynch’s go-to for the rest of their careers, was tasked with writing an original piece of music for the movie instead, given little instruction beyond its eventual title (the phrase “mysteries of love”) and an idea that the song should “float on the sea of time”, with Elizabeth Fraser’s voice in mind. Badalamenti had just met Cruise at a theatre workshop, so he brought her in. The result is a uniquely incandescent piece of music, shimmering poetry animated by Cruise’s vertiginously angelic voice. Blue Velvet is unimaginable without it.
The ethereal voice of Julee Cruise is as essential to the world of Twin Peaks as cherry pie and Dale Cooper’s dreams, yet we may have never heard it if visionary director David Lynch had more funds. He really wanted to include This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren” in Blue Velvet, but he couldn’t afford the rights. Composer Angelo Badalamenti, who in short order would become Lynch’s go-to for the rest of their careers, was tasked with writing an original piece of music for the movie instead, given little instruction beyond its eventual title (the phrase “mysteries of love”) and an idea that the song should “float on the sea of time”, with Elizabeth Fraser’s voice in mind. Badalamenti had just met Cruise at a theatre workshop, so he brought her in. The result is a uniquely incandescent piece of music, shimmering poetry animated by Cruise’s vertiginously angelic voice. Blue Velvet is unimaginable without it.
It’s fitting that a cosmic bit of happenstance brought Cruise into the orbit of those who would shape the career documented on Fall_Float_Love (Works 1989-1998), a 2CD set compiling her first two albums alongside additional singles and remixes. Her first LP, Floating Into The Night, was originally released in 1989 and introduced the world to the hazy, romantic mysteries that the three collaborators would bring to life together. The Voice Of Love was released in 1993, a sonic continuation of the first album’s otherworldly moods and retro atmospherics.
Cruise, like the characters whose voice she came to represent, came from a small town: Creston, Iowa, with a population of less than 8,000 (her father was the town dentist). She headed to Des Moines’ Drake University to study French horn, then joined the Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis, and finally moved to New York, where she would have her fateful meeting with Badalamenti. He wasn’t even sure she’d be the right fit for the Lynch gig; Cruise was a powerhouse vocalist, belting out theatre tunes. She was encouraged to explore a softer side of herself, so she held back, letting her voice glide and hover instead of commanding attention. Lynch and Badalamenti were so taken with “Mysteries Of Love” that they wanted to keep recording with Cruise. The songs were moody, dreamy and undoubtedly strange; Cruise was unsure how well it would work. Her family members didn’t care for it, and radio stations had a hard time with it, even the avant-garde ones. But over time, Floating Into The Night eventually became both an iconic dream pop album and an iconoclastic one, a deeply Lynchian work hung on the ethereal scaffolding of Cruise’s reverb-laden voice. It was also David Bowie’s favourite soundtrack to dinner.
Cruise’s voice would go on to score numerous other moments in Lynch productions. The languorous, jazzy doo-wop of “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart“, the sinister sweetness of “Into The Night” and “I Float Alone“, and the unsettling beauty of “The World Spins” were all included in the 1990 Lynch production Industrial Symphony No. 1 (as well as “This Is Our Night” from Cruise’s second album). Three of those songs were also notably used in Twin Peaks, and then there’s “Falling“, the instrumental version of which is the show’s monumental theme song, transformed into a haunting love song with Cruise’s vocals.
The Voice Of Love includes three songs that Lynch used in 1992’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (in which Cruise also made a brief appearance): the devastating ambient pop ballad “Questions In A World Of Blue” and instrumental versions of “She Would Die For Love” and “The Voice Of Love”. An instrumental version of “Kool Kat Walk”, with its off-kilter piano and finger snaps, fittingly appears in Lynch’s Wild At Heart, while the electric atmosphere of “Up In Flames” originated in Industrial Symphony No. 1.
All of this is deeply enjoyable on its own, in no small part due to Cruise’s hypnotic voice, but the context of Lynch’s work shades the music considerably. It’s a revelation to hear a legendary Frank Booth line issue from Cruise’s gentle lips, imbuing the sick words with a sweeter sense of melancholy. All the Americana flourishes Lynch sweeps into his films are represented here sonically, the retro sensibilities of lounge, noir and girl groups comfortably cohabiting with electronic experimentation and off-putting dissonance. And then there’s the jazz element, a nod backwards to ’50s crooners and forwards to the controlled freedom of the avant-garde.
Cruise would go on to have a unique career, at one point subbing in live for Cindy Wilson of The B-52s and later exploring trip-hop with DJ Dmitry of dance music group Deee-Lite. She even reappeared in Twin Peaks: The Return, her voice and live performance a deeply necessary component of the show’s enduring mythology. Cruise died in 2022, followed by Badalamenti later that year, while Lynch of course passed away this January. Humming eternally within their shared creative legacy are the works documented on Fall_Float_Love, three perfect words to encapsulate Cruise’s enigmatic career as an avatar for Lynch’s fascinations.
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