Life On Mars [Digipak] - Various Artists

...watched all 16 episodes of Life on Mars in a two week period. I was on an extended business trip with high speed internet and terrible TV, so I downloaded both series and watched them each evening and on the plane home.

I’ve pretty much given up on British TV. I find it very provincial compared to what I get from the US. British TV seems overly concerned with little things rather than telling broader stories. British TV seems bogged ...
...Focusing on the minutiae of life in the 70s, Sam Tyler is an Everyman expressing the comfort and the frustration of living in the past.

Soundtrack-wise, the show was also a revelation. I am used to shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs sending me running to google a lyric and track down a track, but this was the first time a British program had successfully integrated great music into a drama and created something more than just acting ... more

I recently watched all 16 episodes of Life on Mars in a two week period. I was on an extended business trip with high speed internet and terrible TV, so I downloaded both series and watched them each evening and on the plane home.

I’ve pretty much given up on British TV. I find it very provincial compared to what I get from the US. British TV seems overly concerned with little things rather than telling broader stories. British TV seems bogged down by the details. Life on Mars took this criticism and made it a virtue. Focusing on the minutiae of life in the 70s, Sam Tyler is an Everyman expressing the comfort and the frustration of living in the past.

Soundtrack-wise, the show was also a revelation. I am used to shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs sending me running to google a lyric and track down a track, but this was the first time a British program had successfully integrated great music into a drama and created something more than just acting with background tunes.

When you consider the origins of the show’s title, it’s a little less surprising, I guess. The piano opening to the Bowie classic ‘Life on Mars’ is the series’ main musical leitmotif and the lyric about a “lawman beating up the wrong guy… in the best-selling show” is the vocal equivalent. This was a TV series born in song.

The soundtrack album does well to capture the joy and the melancholy of the 70s pop scene without overdosing on glitter, make-up and oversize spectacles. It’s the 70s, but it wasn’t always glam. Once you move on from the Sweet (check), Slade (check) and Showaddywaddy (mercifully, no), there is a wealth of tunes that suit the tone of the show, many of them appearing in memorably key scenes.

Overall this soundtrack collection is a bit hit or miss. There are some obvious hits that appear on most 70s albums, like ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Blockbuster’ and ‘Whiskey in the Jar’. These are forgivable because of the context they appeared in during the show, but make for a dull listen without that memory.

Then there are some less obvious choices by well-known bands such as ELO’s ‘10538 Overture’ or Roxy Music’s ‘Street Life’.

Finally there are a few tracks that I wasn’t familiar with that are now linked forever in my mind with the show – ‘I Had A Dream’ by Audience and ‘Snow Flower’ by Ravi’s nephew Ananda Shankar.

The only track that I remembered explicitly from the show that doesn’t appear here was a song called ‘Lay Down’ by The Strawbs. It took me a while but I found it elsewhere and added it to my collection – a minor irritation.

The last piece of the soundtrack puzzle are three, short, Pulp-Fiction-style snippets of dialogue from the series. The first, “King of the Jungle” is from the first episode where Gene Hunt gently informs Tyler what year it is and what he’s having for supper. The last features the opening monologue and series theme as a hidden track. Nice extras, but a pain in the neck when you have the CD on shuffle.

All in all this is a satisfactory purchase and an effective gift for someone who enjoyed the show as much as you. Amazon has it for £8.98 which is about right. Cheers. 

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