Dark Night of the Soul

There's a long-standing relationship between musicians and filmmakers, but when a project involves director, producer, and artist David Lynch, it takes on a surreal twist. Lynch's collaboration with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse for their concept album Dark Night of the Soul sees him contributing vocals to two tracks, alongside this book of photographs interpreting the music. While some tracks feel forced, when they work, it's hair-raising, and Lynch's photos are the perfect companions, elevating the music to cinematic status. (Due to legal disputes with EMI, the CD is officially unreleased, but available online. The limited-edition book includes a blank CD to "use as you see fit," wink, wink.) Given Lynch's talent for creating the disturbing from the mundane, it's impossible not to imagine the worst behind each set of images: a Formica table with a well-lit revolver and two crumpled napkins, a gigantic human head offered up as centerpiece at the family dinner table, suburbia gone wrong, revenge, disjointed reality. As with Lynch's films, interpretation is about "which idea you fall in love with," and how you translate that idea. Your own dark night of the soul may be creepier than even Lynch could imagine.