At the time I bought this album, just the opportunity to hear the Jon-Anderson-with-extra-sugar sound of Mysteries of Love — from that extraordinary scene in the car in Blue Velvet — would have been enough to sell it to me, without knowing much about any of the other tracks, save perhaps the Falling theme from Twin Peaks, which had just started at the time.
But Anderson connections aside, this album is what the Romans must have been anticipating when they coined the term sui generis. David Lynch, who wrote all the lyrics for the album, co-produced it, did the photos and art direction, has an incredible sense of sound design. It marks out his films. He started off working with Alan Splet as sound designer, and I've occasionally wondered who might ever pay the $300+ for three CDs of Splet's work. But when Splet died, Lynch didn't hire anyone else to replace him; he just did the work himself.
Hence these songs sound like what you might here in the black lodge or the Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive. They sound like being wrapped in candy floss from which a stiletto knife may emerge at any point.
I love the way that, say I Remember sounds like three songs packed into one, with its abrupt time signature changes and skittery drums. I love the way the saxophone squonks seem to jab at you from the speakers, like it's not really a saxophone.
This is so good that it makes me want to hunt down that Lynch album of Hildegard von Bingen to remind myself of what he made of that. I'm also checking out some of Julee Cruise's other albums, though my hunch is (perhaps unfairly) that she's not the main presence on this one.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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