CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

1	Who Are You / The Who 3:27
2	Everybody Out of the Water (New Frontier) / The Wallflowers 3:41
3	Crystal / New Order 4:20
4	Come into Our Room / Clinic 3:44
5	Give It Away / Zero 7 5:17
6	Day by Day / Kathryn Williams 4:36
7	Inhaler / Hooverphonic 5:12
8	We Luv You / Grand Theft Auto 3:23
9	Hell Above Water / Curve 4:04
10	To Get Down / Timo Maas Fatboy Slim Mix 6:17
11	Time Has Come Today / The Chambers Brothers 4:52
12	Little Gem / Euphoria 4:31
13	Song for Olabi / Bliss 6:24
14	Unbound / Robbie Robertson 4:35
15	Investigation Suite / John M. Keane 6:03
16	Grissom's Overture / John M. Keane 5:08

Barnes & Noble

Like CBS's hit crime drama CSI, the show's soundtrack opens with a bang: the Who's explosive, synth-boosted classic "Who Are You," the program's theme song. From there, the disc gets decidedly more modern -- outside of the Chambers Brothers' classic-rock standard "Time Has Come Today" -- joining beats-driven dance tunes (New Order's "Crystal," Zero 7's "Give It Away") with spry modern rock (the Wallflowers' effusive "Everybody Out of the Water (New Frontier)"). Throughout, the songs revel in intrinsic tension, whether it's Curve's thumping "Hell Above Water," which joins club beats with heavy-metal guitar riffs, or Timo Maas's edgy, funky "To Get Down (Fatboy Slim Mix)." The album winds down with two tracks of instrumental, incidental music composed by John M. Keane. Both cuts boast an ominous tone -- conveyed by sultry beats, haunting voices, and eerie synths -- that befits the program's fascination with and dissection of life's seamier side. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

CBS-TV's crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was the top-rated network television series in the U.S. in the fall of 2002, when this soundtrack album was released. At least a part of that success could be attributed to the music used on the show, which is featured here, starting with the theme song, the censored single edit of the Who's 1978 Top 20 hit "Who Are You," on which one of the few curse words that still cannot be uttered on network television is replaced by one that can, resulting in the taunt "Who the hell are you?" instead of the more obscene version heard on the band's Who Are You album, which frequently slips by on classic rock radio. The Wallflowers single "Everybody Out of the Water (New Frontier)" is also featured, available six weeks before its release on that band's album Red Letter Days, and proves to be a typical effort from them. Following that introduction, the various-artists album is filled with electronic dance-rock music by the likes of New Order, Hooverphonic, and Bliss, useful no doubt in both action sequences and moodier moments on the show. The sequencing causes the music to get softer and more dominated by instrumentals as it goes along, ending in two excerpts from composer John M. Keane's actual soundtrack cues for the show, "Investigation Suite" and "Grissom's Overture." To those who have something else to do at nine p.m. on Thursday nights, the result may seem like a miscellany, but fans of the show are bound to recognize tunes associated with favorite episodes, which is what a TV soundtrack album is all about. William Ruhlmann