VARIOUS ARTISTS
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas OST
Rockstar
· Oh man! I totally sawed this guy in half with a chainsaw and, like, 2Pac was playing and then I totally ran over someone, but the music was, like, Willie Nelson and it was, like, totally awesome! And then…
While the Grand Theft Auto videogame franchise has been built on bloodlust, camp and gameplay, an intrinsic part of the game is its music. And while I don’t often see it necessary (read: never) to review videogame soundtracks, the people at Rockstar games have inadvertently managed to encapsulate everything that is right and wrong about music in the creation of the various radio stations you can listen to in whatever vehicle you have stolen in Grand Theft Auto. In this edition there are 10 stations, all with sizable playlists, each featuring a different genre including metal, rock, adult-contempo and hip hop. Given that the game is set in the early ’90s, there isn’t any new music, so flipping through stations is similar to scanning the present-day Calgary radio dial. The songs are largely hits, appealing to the short attention spans and unwillingness to put up with crap that epitomizes a generation of downloaders. And above all, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to listen to, freeing songs from the shackles of being guilty pleasures and reminding you just how good other tracks are (Faith No More’s "Midlife Crisis," anyone?). Above all, the selections on this double disc are precisely the type of mix that populates the memories of iPods the world over – no genre boundaries, no guilt, no filler.
Yes it’s a videogame soundtrack. Yes, that’s pretty lame. But this is better than any other compilations of mainstream music that you didn’t make yourself. When a videogame company understands the music industry (and music consumers) better than those making the decisions in record company boardrooms, it’s no wonder the majors are in so much trouble.
4/5
(Oh, c’mon! It has Bell Biv Devoe’s "Poison!")
DEREK McEWEN
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