“Outside,” remarked Tony Soprano of his family home, “it’s the 1990s. In here, it’s 1954.” However, where the soundtrack to the series that bears his name is concerned, it would appear that the compilers were determined to lock Tony and his operation squarely down in the dance-lite and trilby music alley that dominated 1987. It’s a tough break.
People just have no respect for the compilation experience any more. Back in the day, sure, you’d have to put up with that mutt Sinatra and his ‘It Was A Very Good Year’ bullshit going on in the background while you took Jimmy ‘The Problematic Liver’ Franelli to the waterfront for some necessary ventilation work. But we’re in a post-mob clichi series, here. I thought we understood each other.
Evidently, we’re going to have to go over this again. [I]The Sopranos[/I] – strong in the field of sound/image relations, you get me? The guy’s going through emotional torment here. And what’s emotional torment about in the 1990s? That’s right. Indie music. Some fairly indie old things were happening in this series, musically. The Tindersticks were on it, and where are they? That’s right. Not here. The Eurythmics are here instead. Springsteen pretending to be Suicide on ‘State Trooper’ is great, but it will not quite suffice.
The Sopranos are sophisticated people. They traffic in DVD players and buy CDs for their mother. Their mob, crucially, still rules. This mob, unrepresentatively, does not.