Various Artists

Editor's Review:

So you've been hired by a high-level Cuban drug lord to speed across town, pick up some new weaponry and a sidekick, then head straight over to the alleyway behind The Strip to watch over one of the drug lord's captains with a new sniper rifle as he makes a deal with some shifty Columbian gangsters. After jacking the first car you can find, you must decide immediately what kind of music best suits your mission, so you start scanning the car's radio dial. Given the ethnicity of your employer, do you kick over to Espantoso, the Salsa station, and psych up to the soul-stirring sounds of Xavier Cugat and Beny Moré? Or because this job might get a bit hot, do you check out what's playing on V-Rock, home of early hair-metal hot licks à la Autograph and Twisted Sister? Maybe you like rap music when you need to feel like a gangsta, so you slide the dial over to Wild Style and catch the latest jams from the likes of Whodini and Grand Master Flash. Maybe you're just an incorrigible '80s pop junkie, so you scan the airwaves for hits by Go West or Mr. Mister.
While everyday life doesn't usually mirror the amoral, pastel realm of the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PlayStation2), one element of this environment is universally appealing: the music. This seven-CD set (each disc is named after one of the game's radio stations; also available individually) features the cream of the '80s music crop, from metal to rap to pop to Latin, and will appeal your need to relive the "Me" decade, regardless of whether or not you had any clue what the previous paragraph was actually about.
- Max Sidman
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Record Label Epic Released January 2003

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