It's "Crazy Clown Time" for David Lynch

David Lynch  (ExclaimCA)

Is there anything David Lynch can't do? With his latest endeavor, an album of typically mysterious, oddly compelling songs, he adds popular recording artist to his impressive resume. 

Lynch has recorded music in the past, as well as contributing to the soundtracks of his films, but new album "Crazy Clown Time" is his most visible, highest profile release. While hardly mainstream fare, it seems apt that CCT is getting a prominent push; where once Lynch was strictly midnight movie fare ("Eraserhead," his first feature in 1977), he has a network series under his belt ("Twin Peaks") in the early '90s, and the relatively accessible "Mulholland Drive" (2001.)

Still, to call Lynch accessible is a form of cultural relativism. "Blue Velvet", one of three films that earned him an Academy Award nod for Best Director, features stars Laura Dern and Dennis Hopper, but likewise features gasmasks, kink, and mayhem. "Twin Peaks" did air for two seasons on ABC, but it was the easily the most unusual network show in, forever. Atmospheric landscape pans, more familiar to feature film viewers, were part of the visual vocabulary of the show, and characters included the Log Lady and the grisly demise of incest victim Laura Palmer.

"Crazy Clown Time" is actually more accessible than it has any right to be, at least partly because the percussion tracks are insistent and catchy. There are also guitars, keyboards, and heavily treated vocals featured prominently, creating a moody, atmospheric whole. There is enough of a variety to prevent sameness, yet some tracks are more successful than others. Opener "Pinky's Dream" is inviting and evocative at the same time, while "Strange and Unproductive Thinking" is just as unfunky as that title suggests.

As with most of Lynch's work, this one requires repeated encounters to absorb its completeness. He is a master at layers and mystery, as well as being a wildly intelligent artist. Whether you like everything that comes out of him (doubtful), you will nonetheless find something to thrill to on "Crazy Clown Time."

("Crazy Clown Time" is out November 8th on Play it Again Sam records.)