#326 The Best Album of 1989, Round 2 Match #76: Julee Cruise vs. The Beautiful South
Hey folks!
Today’s Best Album of 1989 match is:
#20 Julee Cruise, FLOATING INTO THE NIGHT
vs.
#45 The Beautiful South, WELCOME TO THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH
To vote, follow this link to the Google Form. You will need a Google login to vote. If you can’t or won’t have one, let me know ASAP (either through this newsletter, my email [kentmbeeson@hey.com] or on the Best Album Brackets Bluesky account) and I’ll see what I can do.
We have one Designated Cheerleader today, it’s for FLOATING INTO THE NIGHT, and it’s from @renamj.bsky.social. Take it away, Rena!
What is the best album of 1989? Great question! That year gave us many classics, including De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, the Stone Roses' self-titled debut, and the Pixies' Doolittle. But one personal favorite of mine is Julee Cruise's dream pop masterpiece Floating Into the Night. Produced by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, it is hypnotic nighttime pop with jazz elements that transport the listener. It is lush and beautiful and sometimes spooky. Just a magical album.
Obviously Cruise is best known as the singer in The Roadhouse on Twin Peaks, which featured her signature songs. Most famously, the instrumental version of "Falling" became the show's theme. And who can forget her performance of "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" and “The World Spins” in the terrifying "Lonely Souls" episode, a highlight of the entire series? If you don't know what happens, I won't spoil it for you here.
She also starred in David Lynch's Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted, an experimental concert performance filmed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The film is a fantastic showcase for Julee Cruise, who stars as The Dreamself of the Heartbroken Woman. I've only ever watched it at night and, in classic Lynch form, it is truly bizarre and often nightmarish. Featuring elements from Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks, it could also be described as a 50-minute weird music video with several Cruise tracks including "Up in Flames," "I Float Alone," and "Into the Night." ("Up in Flames," from her second album The Voice of Love, is among her very best.) Dressed in a white gown like an angel, she is often suspended in air - literally floating! There is a spellbinding moment in "The World Spins" when glitter falls from the sky, a great way to end the dreamlike film.
But even if you have never seen Twin Peaks and/or you're not a Lynch fan in general, the music stands on its own. Floating Into the Night was released in September 1989 so it predates the show. It is technically not a soundtrack, even if a few songs did end up on the Twin Peaks OST in 1990. It is an otherworldly album that still sounds stunning today. Tracks like "Floating" that did not appear on the series still have a cinematic feel. Cruise was an incredible vocalist and Floating Into the Night is a landmark in the dream pop genre. (What is dream pop? It sounds like Julee Cruise, a subgenre of alternative that emphasizes texture and atmosphere.)
Julee Cruise passed away in June 2022 and her spirit floats on forever. The world spins.
Thank you, Rena!
Click here to see the current results for the entire tournament, and click here to see the current results for the prediction bracket contest.
Thanks, and hope your weekend was great! Also, in case you missed it, I sent out a big list of Readers’ Favorite Obscure 2001 Albums for you to peruse and consider hearing in advance of the upcoming Best Album of 2001 tournament. You can find it at the link above.
Kent