Colin McRae Rally 04
Colin McRae Rally 04
Routine and variation
With Colin McRae Rally 04 the series reaches its second most productive point musically—at least if you take the scope as a benchmark. Twelve tracks from this installment can be found in Jonathan Collings' later compilation.
The music remains faithful to the established electronic foundation, but appears more structured and clearly tailored to individual game situations. Champion jingles, intro pieces, menu and results screen music – CMR 04 has a distinctly modular soundtrack for the first time. Much of it is short, concise, and functional, some of it barely longer than an acoustic marker. The Champion Jingles in particular feel less like pieces of music and more like confirming signals: “You've achieved something, let's move on.”
In between, however, there are also longer, more elaborate tracks such as Intro Music [Extended Version], which show that Colling continues to enjoy variation and elaboration. Here, the music sounds confident, experienced, and free of any urge to experiment. Nothing grates, nothing disturbs, nothing wants to stand out. Instead, everything fits neatly into the flow – exactly as you would expect from an established series spin-off.
For me personally, this is once again the crux of the matter. The music works, without question. It is professionally produced, harmoniously arranged, and fulfills its purpose flawlessly. At the same time, it remains astonishingly neutral emotionally. Even the better pieces do not make me want to linger longer or play them again outside of the game.
It comes as no surprise that many of the motifs used here reappear later or are reused with slight variations. Colin McRae Rally 04 marks the point at which the series has fully arrived musically – and thus begins to quote itself. For fans, this is probably a comforting feeling of continuity. For me, it's another sign that rallying and I respect each other, but will never really get closer.
