"Blue Velvet" was composer Angelo Badalamenti's first collaboration with David Lynch, and what a start! This is a wonderful soundtrack, featuring Badalamenti's mysterious and romantic string pieces alongside the classic title track, Ketty Lester's version of "Love Letters", and, most memorably, Roy Orbison's haunting "In Dreams".
This album also marks the Lynch debut of vocalist Julee Cruise, later to find international fame with Twin Peaks' "Falling". Here she lends her dreamlike voice to "The Mysteries Of Love" (lyrics by Lynch). Badalamenti's string and horn versions of the same track are utterly beautiful. The deeply disturbing subject matter of the film is conveyed through several unsettling passages representing the villainous Frank Booth.
This album is a fantastic companion to the film, and marked the beginning of one of the greatest composer-director partnerships in modern cinema. An essential purchase for any Lynch fan.
