Miami Vice Soundtrack

Michael Mann's films are almost always rewarding, edgy and challenging, but even the critically-beloved American director's latest Miami Vice stunned critics with its visceral portrayal of the new landscape of illegal drug smuggling. When Mann created the eponymous series, Miami was just becoming an overgrown beach town, and drug runners were still small time thugs who cruised the city's dark waters in glorified speedboats. The film's relationship to the series itself is tertiary at best; Mann has reworked his heroes (Crockett and Tubbs) into stalwart, fearless foot soldiers and his villains as veritable corporate CEO's who are as interested in guarding their own international investment portfolios as they are protecting their highly valuable contraband. Of course, the series was known almost as well for its sounds as it was its electric blue linen suits and Italian convertibles. Jan Hammer, Phil Collins and Glenn Frey are thankfully overlooked and replaced with the sounds that reflect the new Miami -- international, diverse and cosmopolitan. The soundtrack favors ambient mood music as much as a turn on the dance floor, and the eclecticism is more than befitting for the film that this collection accompanies.

The soundtrack largely leans towards ambient music, especially the tracks from John Murphy's original score (the lovely "Who Are You" and the especially inviting "Mercado Nuevo"). The album, and the movie, probably wouldn't be complete without an appearance of "In the Air Tonight," given here a modern n-metal make-over by hardcore metal favorites Nonpoint. Moby makes ideal songs for soundtracks (case in point -- his album Play was the most licensed album of all time), and two of his lesser known tracks appear here: old Moby from his deep house days (1995's "Anthem" from Everything is Wrong) and newer Moby, the dramatic and moving "One of These Mornings" (from 2002's 18, featuring the always lovely Patti Labelle, who is the only artist here who also appears on one of the two soundtracks for the television show). Two distinctly different tracks from Scottish guitar rock instrumentalists Mogwai give an almost perfect definition of the soundtrack's range: the first, the steely and hardcore "We're No Here" and the second, the surprisingly (considering the source) moody and ambient "Auto Rock."

There are club jams aplenty, like Goldfrapp's always pleasing disco fare ("Strict Machine"), Freaky Chakra's "Blacklight Fantasy" and, delightfully, Felix Da Housecat's superb, bass heavy remix of Nina Simone's "Sinnerman" (taken from the Verve Remixed series). Of course, what would a film set in Miami be without at least one sizzling salsa track? Manzanita's "Arranca" gives the album's best Latin flavors, and is the most danceable track included. This is a carefully assembled collection that does its part to help distance the audience's view from the series which spawned it. It's also intelligent and avoids music label tie-ins, giving it an edge in the world of modern day, action film soundtracks. These are visceral and raw, as well as dramatic and smooth. While it's too bad that more film soundtracks can't be this humanizing and interesting, it's rewarding and reassuring that this one is.

By Rachel Parker