Chudah's Corner

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View Back Cover	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Official Soundtrack Box Set
	Composed by: Various Artists
	Arranged by: N/A
	Publisher: Sony Music Entertainment
	Catalog Number: EXK-87009
	CD Info: 7 CD - 123 Tracks
	Released: October 29, 2002

Review by: Zane

Licensed soundtracks usually get a bad rap, and most of the time it's not without solid reasoning. I can't even bend over to tie my shoe in a video game store without coming face-to-face with a handful of titles that were put out by The Big Publishers that are trying to push up-and-coming artists on the gaming public. Normally I am immediately turned off by those games and soundtracks, but Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a different story all together. Rockstar went above and beyond with Vice City's soundtrack: Instead of just mish-mashing hook-by-number songs by plastic bands that were birthed in a conference room, Rockstar tried to capture not just the music, but the entire essence of the 80's, and they succeeded admirably. When playing the game and listening to the music it really feels like the development team took a big chunk of 1986 and brought it into this decade for us to enjoy.

In the game there are a good number of radio stations that you can listen to while driving around, and this set highlights the best of the best stations with some added outtakes and funny commercials tacked on as a little bonus. Each station has its own radio DJ personality, from the sexually ambiguous Adam First from the synth-saturated Wave 103 to the sensual (and quite funny) Fernando Martinez from Emotion 98.3. Every station has the perfect personality to go alongside the overall vibe and music to the point where I feel like each of these stations is a real radio station.

None of the music here is what most of us consider "video game music". It's all licensed and previously packaged music from dozens of bands and artists of the early-to-mid 80s. Each disc corresponds to one genre, or station, and there are seven discs full of great stuff here. My personal favorites are VROCK, which features a solid mix of hard rock and metal, as well as the pop-heavy Flash FM and the karaoke-ballad, monster-disc that comes from Emotion 98.3. Personal preferences aside, there's no question that each disc does what it was made to do extremely well. Even the odd-man out here, Radio Espantoso, is great for what it is - a Spanish-based station with different kinds of Latin and jazz music.

So, on to the goods. VROCK's metal and rock breakdown is phenomenal. You have your cheesy hair bands (Twisted Sister, "I Wanna Rock"), some brutal metal (Slayer, "Raining Blood"), classic rock (Autograph, "Turn Up the Radio"), garage thrash (Megadeth, "Peace Sells") and just about everything in-between. Being a rocker myself, this disc speaks volumes to me, and is great for blasting while driving down the freeway.

Wave 103 is filled to the brim with synth-pop, ranging from the classic "Sunglasses at Night" by Corey Hart to the boppy sing-along in "Kids in America" by Kim Wilde. In a similar fashion is Flash FM, a disc that has what could be considered the most "pop" content in the box set; a lot of this stuff is still pretty tame, but it has a decent edge to it and feels much more real than the pop music that's out today. Flash FM is definitely the most fun and uplifting album in the set.

Emotion 98.3 and Fever 105 are somewhat similar, both being full of different types of soulful music. Emotion has more somber and depressing music ("Missing You", "Waiting for a Girl Like You") while Fever has some great grooves. Fever’s disc kicks off with Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and barely lets up for the rest of the disc. The last disc in the set, Wildstyle Pirate Radio, is full of very early hip-hop and rap, featuring pioneers like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and Kool Keith, but the album doesn't strike a chord (or a beat) with me. It is a solid disc for what it sets out to be, but I just don't care for rap or hip-hop that much personally.

Vice City's soundtrack release is a box set full of enjoyable licensed music that was not put into a game just to sell records and promote bands fresh out of the mold. There is literally something here for everyone to enjoy, and I highly recommend the set as a whole for those of you that want to check out a snapshot of some great music from the 80's. Fans of Vice City will definitely want to pick this up as well. If you're not interested in the whole set, Rockstar also put each individual CD to retail so you can purchase each station's discs individually, although those are a little harder to come by. Whatever way you choose to look at it, there is one thing that really can't be denied: Rockstar did a damn good job putting this soundtrack set together.

Bottom Line: A-