Next year, Nonesuch and Warner Music Group is releasing a deluxe edition soundtrack for HBO's critically-acclaimed drama series,
The Wire. The soundtrack, entitled “The Wire… ‘and all the pieces matter,'” contains music from the show's five years, including a number of tracks from underground hip hop and club artists in Baltimore, where the series is set.
Titles found in the
The Wire deluxe soundtrack include “Efuge, Efuge” “Unfriendly Game,” “Fast Train,” “The Body of an American,” “Ayo,” “Analyze,” “What You Know About Baltimore,” “Projects,” “Jail Flick,” “I Feel Alright,” “The Life, The Hood, The Streetz,” “Dance My Pain Away,” and “I Walk on Guilded Splinters.”
“The Wire…” also features at least three versions of the show's theme, “Way Down in the Hole,” which was written by Tom Waits. Bands that rendered the theme are The Neville Brothers, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Domaje, a teen band from Baltimore.
Accompanying the CD is a booklet of essays penned by various hip-hop journalists and
The Wire writer George Pelecanos. The insert also has a Q&A session between series creator David Simon and author Nick Hornby that first came out in The Believer.
The comprehensive soundtrack is scheduled for release on Tuesday, January 8, two days after the The Wire's fifth and final season premiere.
Also on January 8, the 11-track CD, “Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from The Wire” will be released. The album holds nine songs from “The Wire…” and an additional two tracks. The insert is an 8-page, 4-color booklet.
According to HBO, "Beyond Hamsterdam" is “as rigorously conceived as the series itself, and makes for truly compelling listening,” with all the original tracks coming solely from Baltimore artists.
The Wire is a drama that revolves around a multi-generational illegal drug business and the efforts of the Baltimore police to curb their trade. It stars
Dominic West,
Sonja Sohn,
Lance Reddick,
Wendell Pierce,
Deirdre Lovejoy,
Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey,
Domenick Lombardozzi,
Seth Gilliam,
Aidan Gillen, Jamie Hector,
Michael Kenneth Williams,
John Doman,
Andre Royo, Corey Parker Robinson, Tristan Wilds, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Jermaine Crawford and Isiah Whitlock, Jr.
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: HBO, Billboard
(Image Courtesy of Nonesuch)