E-Mail This Article to a Friend Soundtrack of our lives That is, if our lives are consumed by Grand Theft Auto BY MITCH KRPATA

Grand Theft Auto addicts – you know who you are – have probably spent enough time prowling the streets of San Andreas that they can recite the playlist of every radio station the state has to offer. From Radio Los Santos to KJah West, GTA certainly isn't lacking for diverse tunes. But for some of you, virtual radio may not be enough. If that's the case, or if you want to dangerously blur the line between fantasy and reality as you cruise through town in your own hoopty, then the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas official soundtrack may be for you.

The soundtrack is a two-disc set comprising what is allegedly the best that San Andreas's FM band has to offer. Twenty-three songs are included, mostly covering the rap and R&B side of the spectrum. These are serious artists, though, with selections from canonical acts as 2 Pac, Public Enemy, and Eric B. & Rakim.

They're also mature artists. Disc one begins – after the instrumental San Andreas intro that's a respectable cop of Dr. Dre's production style – with Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" and its familiar refrain of "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" From there, it's straight into "I Don't Give a Fuck." Like the game whose name it bears, this soundtrack is definitely not for the kids.

The cheese component is in full effect as well. Eddie Money's "Two Tickets to Paradise" is included in all its corporate-rock glory, and Heart's "Barracuda" appears on disc two. In addition, the honeyed warblings of Willie Nelson grace the disc, which is actually awesome, if a bit jarring after listening to three R&B songs in a row.

The two-disc set also includes two bonuses. One is a track exclusive to this release: a rendition of Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole" by Bay-Area punks AFI. It's the best kind of cover, both faithful to the original and embossed with the performer's unmistakable stamp. AFI front man Davey Havok has a more melodic and, yes, more androgynous voice than Trent Reznor, but he sings with the same conviction. And though the song is played at a breakneck pace, with much of the same industrial grinding as the original, it's also unmistakably poppier. I wouldn't be surprised to hear this get some mainstream airplay.

There's also a DVD entitled "The Introduction." The disc is a cinematic fleshing out of GTA: SA's characters and storyline, revealing several events that take place before CJ's arrival back in Los Santos. Generated from the in-game engine, this is a 20-minute collection of loosely-related vignettes, culminating in the drive-by that kills CJ's mom. All of the major characters are represented, and although there's nothing exactly new on display, "The Introduction" does a good job of fleshing out San Andreas's backstory. It's a nifty feature, and required viewing for anyone who thought 60+ hours of gameplay just wasn't enough, goddamn it!

Rockstar's stated goal with this release was to reflect the variety of popular music available during the era in which San Andreas is set. By that measure, they've succeeded: listening to this compilation is frighteningly like flipping the FM dial in 1992. But that also means segueing from Faith No More's "Midlife Crisis" (Faith No More has aged spectacularly, by the way) into "Poison" by Bel Biv Devoe. In their effort to represent every genre available at the time, they've sacrificed continuity and cohesiveness.

That won't be a problem when the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack box set comes out. The two-disc version was released on November 23, but on December 7 Rockstar will be following up with a staggering eight-disc set. The box segregates songs by in-game radio station, meaning all the rock is on one CD, pop is on another, reggae on yet another, and so on. The track list is, obviously, stronger on the box set. The grunge list alone includes several cuts that have assumed their places in the pantheon, like Helmet's "Unsung" and Danzig's "Mother."

Although the song selection seems a bit scattershot, the GTA: SA soundtrack is a nice, broad sampling of early 1990s hits, some of which have lived on in pop culture and some of which have faded away. If compiling such music is your mission, however, the upcoming box will probably be a better choice. For most people, this is a decent enough collection whose real allure is "The Introduction" DVD.