LOS ANGELES — Multi-media artist David Lynch debuts his second album, “The Big Dream,” today, featuring 12 tracks (11 written by him), which he classifies as modern blues.
Lynch and his musical partner, Dean Hurley, will make an appearance in Hollywood’s Amoeba Records starting at 6 p.m. today when Hurley will spin a DJ set while Lynch signs copies of the new disc for fans.
“The Big Dream” follows Lynch’s 2011 album, “Crazy Clown Time,” which featured a mix of styles. The new record is rooted firmly in the blues with filtered, scratchy vocal stylings by Lynch over twangy, reverb-saturated guitar chords.
“Most of the songs start out as a type of blues jam and then we go sideways from there,” Lynch said in a press release. “What comes out is a hybrid, modernized form of low-down blues.”
Reviews of the new album have been mixed, with The Guardian deeming it an improvement over “Crazy Clown Time” and calling it “less of a stunt and more of a well-executed idea.”
But The Independent was less enthralled, commenting that Lynch “sounds like an intellectual playing bogus trailer-trash.”
Most reviewers agreed that the Bob Dylan cover, “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” a song about a farmer who, driven mad by poverty, murders his wife and children and then himself, is the centerpiece of the album.
The double LP comes with a bonus 7-inch, “I’m Waiting Here,” featuring Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li— most reviewers have singled out the track as one of the album’s high points. The B-side of the 7-inch contains an etching inscribed by Lynch.
“She brought her own style to the song, which has a doo-wop sort of thing going on, but in a way it’s far-removed from the 50s,” Lynch said.
“The Big Dream” is on Sacred Bones Records and was recorded at Lynch’s own Asymmetrical Studio and engineered by Hurley, who also plays on most of the tracks.