Chuck and Jeffster Strike Back: The Soundtrack

If you weren’t lucky enough to get swept up in Chuck the first time around, you truly missed something unique. I got caught in the tidal wave at the very last scene of season two. My husband was watching the show and I was on my way through the living room. I stopped, watched the lead character, Chuck, do this thing where he looked at his bad guys, had some sort of flash, then did crazy, flipping kung fu. I remember looking at my husband and saying, “That was cool. Does he always do that?” To which he laughed and said, “Not like that!” I didn’t realize until I watched the seasons and caught up for myself that that scene was an awesome ending to season two. It truly only takes one scene to pull the viewer in. It’s a show made with passion that bleeds through to the audience. Every aspect of the show captures that love from the writing to the acting to the cinematography to, of course, the music.

The music of the show is incredibly distinctive. Listening to the newly released soundtrack instantaneously takes the audience back to particular scenes and make you re-fall in the love with the show. I want to pull out my DVD’s and watch the series straight through again just from the music alone. Frankly, Tim Jones is a musical genius. Saying the ambience of the show is enhanced from the music is being dismissive to the musical skill of Jones. Everything about the show is directly correlated to each other. The acting wouldn’t be as strong without the writing. The writing wouldn’t be as amazing without the directing. The show wouldn’t be as entertaining without the music. This show existed with the perfect synergy that other shows can only dream about.

Throughout five seasons, the audience expected certain themes for the show. Not to misconstrue it that the music is repetitive, but the journey of watching these characters grow is always followed by very specific background orchestrations. I knew action scenes would have a certain vibe and exactly what romance sounded like in the world of Chuck. Outside of licensed music, which in and of itself is awesome, Jones’ music decisions created its own world for the series.

In addition to almost-an-hour of Tim Jones’ music, there are a few extra tracks well known to any Chuck fan. I’m speaking, of course, about the amazing Jeffster. It’s the strangest phenomena since Glee. I mean, Chuck wasn’t the most straight-laced of shows, but to have musical interludes, well that should have been downright ridiculous, right? And yet, it really was awesome. To see these two characters, Jeff and Lester, who by all means should have faded off into the background have this ground-swell of support was mind-boggling. Fans clamoring for more of their songs was so weird, but just right. The covers included on the soundtrack are Take On Me, Fortunate Son, Fat Bottom Girls, with bonus tracks of Leaving on a Jet Plane and Mr Roboto. The vocals really aren’t bad, as silly as they are. The only disappointment in this are the songs that weren’t included like their cover of Blaze of Glory and, the song that started it all, Africa.

The Too Long; Didn’t Read (TL; DR): If you are already a fan of the show, get the soundtrack. It’ll take you back in every note and every track. If you haven’t watched the show, what are you possibly waiting for??? Go… Go do that RIGHT NOW!