Angelo Badalementi - The Straight Story: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack

We've come to expect a few things from composer Angelo Badalamenti's numerous collaborations with David Lynch. His scores for Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart, and Blue Velvet all took a smoky jazz-noir aesthetic into the orchestra pit. The results were memorable--and sometimes haunting--just like the films. For The Straight Story--the G-rated (yes, that's right) tale of an elderly man's epic journey on a John Deere lawnmower to see his sick brother--we get a different side to both the composer and the director once again. Here the orchestrations are atmospheric, but a subtle strain of folk music is evident throughout. "Rose's Theme" is filled with acoustic guitar finger-picking against a string section, "Alvin's Theme" has a fiddle mimicking a locomotive, and "Country Waltz" is just that. "Farmland Tour" is the Twin Peaks theme gone sentimental. A hint of nostalgia, a certain Midwestern innocence, and plenty of vast-sounding passages make this the perfect sonic backdrop for a film set in America's heartland. Just like that setting, it can seem a little repetitive at times, but--as a whole--it's another memorable effort from Badalamenti. --Jason Verlinde Amazon.com

Great Soundtrack

We love this soundtrack to what is a sweet movie. We actually bought it to play in our newborn daughter's room during calm down time. Definitely a soothing soundtrack. December 20, 2008

The Straight Story

Seeing the DVD first is what inspired me to order the soundtrack. Very good and relaxing music. The movie is very heartwarming. February 13, 2008

Simple yet powerful

Gentle, relaxing and calm music... A well worth soundtrack to add to your collection (collector or not). Badalamenti creates here a soothing soundtrack that support well the film's thematic. Very effective but simple orchestration (lots of stringed guitars). You could sense a very powerful spirit of hope and self-determination from the whole album.
January 15, 2008

Music from Heaven

This Soundtrack is moving and full of the meanings expressed in the movie it is related to, moreover it lets you see in your mind the West of USA, even without going there, it's amazing, this musci is so full of passion and the violin player makes his instrument talk to our heart. Angelo Badalamenti is a genius. January 12, 2007

I'll ponder whatever

The Straight Story is a film that I really like and a major reason for this is the music. I can't think of another movie I've seen in which the musical score is this gripping, especially song 3, which I think is called Laurens walking.

After hearing what Angelo Badalamenti did on Twin Peaks, as well, makes me aware I'm in the hands of genius.

Though David Lynch and his editors (Mary Sweeney, I think, is a key one) didn't create any of this music with Angelo (at least, I don't think), they accentuate it so immensely by using it in such beautiful ways with the images in the film that it seems they should almost get a small songwriting credit as well.

I didn't think watching a 79-year old man riding on a tractor from Iowa to Wisconsin could feel so haunting, endearing and sometimes spooky.

January 7, 2006

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