Albums to watch

The Big Dream

David Lynch

The Big Dream

Second studio album by American filmmaker and musician, featuring eleven original blues songs and a Bob Dylan cover.

ADM rating[?]

6.7

Label
Sunday Best
UK Release date
15/07/2013
US Release date
16/07/2013
  1. 10.0 |   The Skinny

    Less like a self-indulgent project from a director and artist who has decided to experiment with a new form, and more like a youthful artist, full of promise, finding his distinctive voice for the first time
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  2. 9.0 |   God Is In The TV

    When it happens Lynch’s music is capable of moulding, following whichever feeling is carrying you without disappearing completely
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  3. 8.2 |   Paste Magazine

    For all its varied sonic textures and hues, Lynch does what he is best known for with every bit of art he lays his hands to: sustaining a singular vision and mood throughout
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  4. 8.0 |   Time Out

    If ‘Crazy Clown Time’ was his musical ‘Eraserhead’ – supremely creepy but almost devoid of plot – then ‘The Big Dream’ is more of a ‘Blue Velvet’, matching the atmosphere with movement and development
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  5. 8.0 |   The 405

    A languid, unhurried pace has taken over, a sign perhaps that Lynch feels more at ease being front and centre in a discipline where previously he was content to lurk in the background
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  6. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    Believe it or not, this is a step towards the mainstream for Lynch
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  7. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    A curious piece of work, a reverb-drenched collection of blues-tinged rockabilly
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  8. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    A thoroughly decent album from start to finish
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  9. 7.5 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Although The Big Dream is markedly less peculiar than Crazy Clown Time, and in turn appearing less adventurous, it’s also considerably more focused
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  10. 7.0 |   All Music

    Even if his take on the blues is far from straightforward, this might be the most accessible set of songs associated with Lynch to date
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  11. 7.0 |   Clash

    This is David Lynch’s second solo album and already he’s displaying maturity
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  12. 7.0 |   DIY

    It is deeply sinister and often quite unpleasant, but it’s a compelling unpleasantness, one that draws you in and transfixes you. An intriguing album befitting of a fascinating man
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  13. 7.0 |   NME

    There's enough musical ambition, heartbreak and menace on 'The Big Dream; to keep Lynch nerds absorbed
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  14. 7.0 |   FasterLouder

    Whilst The Big Dream reinforces his somewhat one-sided sound, it’s a sound which engraves itself in your memory
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  15. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    At the very least, the album should convince diehard Lynch fans that the director’s self-imposed, semi-retirement from filmmaking is bearing some very interesting artistic fruit indeed
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  16. 7.0 |   No Ripcord

    The Big Dream doesn’t come off as much like an album as it does a place. It’s more of an unconscious escape hatch that Lynch has constructed with intangible aural elements
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  17. 7.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    This is a all as you would expect from Lynch – brilliant, inconsistent, pleasing, frustrating
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  18. 6.7 |   A.V. Club

    Most of the songs on The Big Dream are sufficient evidence that Lynch’s music deserves a listen on its own terms, separate from a footnote to his film career
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  19. 6.3 |   Pitchfork

    It’s difficult to imagine returning to this album months or even weeks from now, once the initial charge of “I’m listening to a David Lynch album” has worn off
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  20. 6.0 |   The Scotsman

    This collection of prowling monologues, warped with reverb and other effects, coheres to Lynch’s description of “modern blues”
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  21. 6.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    It’s uncertain music from an uncertain man, an artifact that will continue to influence growing pains from the many Lynchian dreamers
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  22. 6.0 |   The Fly

    ‘The Big Dream’ is – let’s be honest – among the tamer conceits to have escaped Lynch’s mind
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  23. 6.0 |   Under The Radar

    This is an unrelentingly difficult record, with all semblances of pop music and even melody eschewed for a Hound of the Baskervilles trudge through a gothic swamp
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  24. 6.0 |   Q

    Delivering macabre blues narratives in a reedy, distorted voice. Print edition only

  25. 5.0 |   Uncut

    Might have worked better with a talented female collaborator on the mic. Print edition only

  26. 5.0 |   Fact

    With a few more such thoughtfully crafted moments The Big Dream might have been an entirely adequate sidenote in Lynch’s ever-growing oeuvre. As it stands, it is barely that
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  27. 5.0 |   The Quietus

    The Big Dream is vaguely interesting, but not very interesting. Its noises are kinda weird, but not deeply weird. The Big Dream won't blow your mind
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  28. 5.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Briefly amusing, consistently strange, but rarely resonant
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  29. 4.0 |   The Independent

    It's a sound with all flesh stripped off the bone, but Lynch himself sounds like an intellectual playing bogus trailer-trash
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  30. 4.0 |   The Observer

    Not until the penultimate track and Lykke Li's final breathy cameo do real glimmers of melody pierce through the fug
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David Lynch: The Big Dream

  • Download full album for just £8.49
  • 1. The Big Dream £0.99
  • 2. Star Dream Girl £0.99
  • 3. Last Call £0.99
  • 4. Cold Wind Blowin' £0.99
  • 5. The Ballad of Hollis Brown £0.99
  • 6. Wishin' Well £0.99
  • 7. Say It £0.99
  • 8. We Rolled Together £0.99
  • 9. Sun Can't Be Seen No More £0.99
  • 10. I Want You £0.99
  • 11. The Line It Curves £0.99
  • 12. Are You Sure £0.99
  • 13. I'm Waiting Here £0.99
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