March Review Roundup: Part One
By Chris FullmanPosted at March 20, 2005 - 12:03 AM GMT
Death flu's, my first trip to New York-turned semi-disaster, and a busy work schedule made CSI a very good friend to wind down to. Especially a mini-CSI marathon, thanks to Replay TV. Lets get rolling, shall we?
Miami's musical content has been on a constant increase in quality. The composers have taken quite a grip on the show and with the support of licensed tracks, the show's music has gotten stronger lately.
While the quality has risen, so have the party scenes. Now, don't get me wrong, I only live 20 miles north of Miami and know there's parties every night, but I would like to hope these parties would pick something other than dance tracks; there is a whole world of music out there. Then again, our radio stations have taken quite a swap lately, with the staple rock station switching over to Latin/Reggaeton and the dance station quickly switching over to fill the hole the rock station left, so perhaps there isn't that much music out there.
Bill Brown has apparently switched up his scoring techniques to introduce a rather hip-hop/techno mix. While this isn't uncommon for CSI and Miami, it's fairly new to New York, and helps the ongoing trend of trying to lighten up the series.
The cinematic bumpers have become common now, which definitely flow with the feel of New York without darkening the series and hindering the other musical flavors. The grittyness of the city comes out nicely, even if these bumpers are merely a few seconds long.
CSI's music has recently been muted to ambient tracks and small intrumentals, while I've noticed that there's a higher amount of licensed tracks being added to each episode. This could just be due to the producers wanting to spice the show up a bit, especially with the latest (big) guest stars (Stephen Baldwin & Wil Wheaton in Compulsion), and the latest directorial news with Quentin Tarantino for handling the season finale.
One notable style of music that I heard in the previous week's Compulsion was a slight waltz, with the piano capping off the episode as the father confronts his son. The scene was fitting with the music as it shows the child's innocence lost to darkness while Nick stood on his own by apologizing that detective Chris felt as if Nick owed him an apology.
These tracks have caused a buzz in our Talk CSI music forums, creating many questions as to what songs are in the episodes. If you haven't checked out our music forums yet, now is a good time as any.
Discuss this reviews at Talk CSI!
Chris Fullman is a regular contributor.
