Angelo Badalamenti's Soundtrack from Twin Peaks

Review

I picked this up to see if I’d be interested in the format of the 33 1/3 books. I’m not sure to what extent they are like this one, as they seem to all be from different authors. This one is very musically inclined, as in, lots of musical staves, talking of majors and minors and key changes and etc. etc. I ended up skimming a lot of it, because I don’t have the vocabulary or the knowledge to connect many of those words to sounds or concepts, which I feel a little embarrassed to admit. I can read sheet music a bit; I played the trombone, but I was the kind of player that didn’t want to practice and just wrote slide positions on the sheet. I love listening to music, and I have a good feel for it, but I don’t know what I’m looking at on paper.

What I kept wishing was for this to be an hour and a half long video essay with scenes, musical staves illustrated to the sounds we’re hearing. I know that probably sounds like Baby’s First Music Theory Lesson, but it’s what I think I need.

So, my rating of the book should probably not be taken seriously. If you love Badalamenti’s music for Twin Peaks, and you have more musical knowledge than me or your average fourth grader, you’ll probably really like this!