30 Day Movie Challenge - Day 28

[trinityvixen]

So close. I might have to go back and finish that long-abandoned music meme if I actually manage to finish this off by Thursday...

Day 28 - Movie with the best soundtrack

If I hadn't used it for a previous entry, I might have put The Matrix soundtrack up for this entry. However, though I did immediately request a copy of that soundtrack from my sister (who had the edited for content version, bleh-yech), the only soundtrack I've ever bought immediately after walking out of the movie was the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack.

Damn, but that Violent Femmes song was addictive. "Blister in the Sun" plays over the ending credits and it's absolutely fucking irresistible. I walked out of the theater and bought an overpriced CD from Barnes and Noble because I wasn't going to be able to get home without it. My mom came to pick us up (omg, I was une bebe, I needed rides home when this came out!!) and I unwrapped the disc and popped it into what was, at the time, still a novelty to me: the CD player in the car. "Blister in the Sun" kicked off the record, and we were off, never to look back.

Absolutely every song on this album is fun, though I cannot separate them from the scenes in the movie over which they played. Particularly hard to divorce from the scene in which it's featured? "Mirror in the Bathroom" by The English Beat, which features the line "Mirror in the bathroom, recompense/ for all my crimes of self defense" while John Cusack stabs another hitman in the neck with a pen. I mean, that is just never not going to be what I think of when I hear that song

I think is the best of all possible worlds with a movie soundtrack--kicky fun tracks that are well used within the movie. Special kudos to the excellent placement of both "I Can See Clearly Now" and "Live and Let Die," movie! I still love every track off of this, so it's definitely stood the test of time. And, since a lot of these songs were purposefully chosen to be from ten years or more before the setting of the movie (1996), the songs themselves have already done at least that much or more. Full soundtrack listing is here at Amazon, if you're interested. Well worth a purchase. The second volume isn't as good, but it's still extremely listenable.

Other runners-up I considered: The Wedding Singer, Forrest Gump, The Crow. All of those are excellent soundtracks, ranging from golden oldies to early-nineties rock, which is pretty much the last time I stopped thinking music was actually good. (Still like post-1990s music, but good? Eh.)

Previous entries:
Day 01
Day 02
Day 03 - 06
Day 07
Day 08
Day 09
Day 10
Day 11-13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17-19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23-26
Day 27

Comments

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

Haha my favorite soundtracks list is almost identical to yours. My top three have got to be Grosse Pointe Blank, The Matrix, The Crow and Mortal Kombat (which introduced me to Sister Machine Gun, who I credited with being my all time favorite band for quite a while and still might be), with honorable mentions The Mask (I had to make my mom take me to get it after seeing it in the theater, but it doesn't stand the test of time nearly as well), The Wedding Singer, Spawn, Mission: Impossible, Romeo + Juliet (1996), Gone In 60 Seconds (not the best start to finish, but contains one of my favorite songs of all time and a few more that make it a front runner), and probably a few more I don't have time to remember at the moment.

Haha I still laugh when I think about the scene in Grosse Pointe Blank where he's at the school trying to dispose of the body while "99 Red Balloons" plays happily, although I think that song is on the second volume to the soundtrack, which I do not have.

Okay, I thought of a couple more in the shower and can't let them go unmentioned: Escape From L.A. (great hard rock/industrial/alternative album), The Crow: City of Angels (much better than the movie itself), Tomb Raider (this and Gone In 60 Seconds made up my go to Friday soundtrack for work for a long time) and The Beach, which I would actually put up in the top tier with The Crow and whatnot (soundtracks for mid-late '90s DiCaprio movies-that-aren't-Titanic ftw!).

Argh! And Lost Highway! That's it, I swear! No more edits! *quickly shuts down computer before he can think of anything else he just can't go without adding*

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Damn, I forgot Romeo and Juliet, which is my first exposure to one of my favorite bands: Garbage. I must have listened to "#1 Crush" a thousand times while I was working at the tennis court registration booth.

The soundtracks for the various Crow movies have all been good, actually. Not necessarily my favorite, but definitely good.

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

Haha awesome. Yeah, I played the hell out of "#1 Crush", too.

Agreed. I have the soundtracks through Salvation, but don't know if they even released soundtracks after that. The Crow and City of Angels are both really good and I still like Salvation, but it's not quite on the same level for me. The Mortal Kombat soundtrack are the same way for me -- the first is the best, but More Kombat (the second volume for the first film) and Annihilation are both really good, too, and still feature that industrial/techno vibe I like.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I love "Blister in the Sun". I swear, it's one of the catchiest songs ever.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Isn't it just? Absolutely infectious.

[lnbw.livejournal.com]

Yesssss :D Grosse Pointe Blank is one of my favorite movies and the soundtrack is awesome.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I loved that movie. It was such a good way to play against type for John Cusack while not really playing against type, you know? And the music is wall-to-wall good stuff, which, I guess, I should expect from a movie where the main romantic pairing features a DJ as one of the pair. :)

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I'm terrible with soundtracks, but Grosse Point Blank, The Crow, and Mortal Combat are certainly good ones. I think my favorite, though, is still Lost Boys. Brilliant roadtrip music.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Before high school, I took most of my music from movies when I didn't get it from stuff my parents listened to in the car. It took an effort to, like, follow bands instead.

I'll have to look up The Lost Boys soundtrack, see what I see. Thanks for the recommendations!

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. My other favorite for road trips was The Breakfast Club--both of them were pretty much made for blasting late at night while speeding down the highway.

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

For me, it was "The Crow" - the entire soundtrack was wonderful.

I bought the "Romeo + Juliet" soundtrack solely for "#1 Crush". That was my first Garbage song and remains my favorite.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Both are excellent, excellent soundtracks that never go out of my permanent rotation, and I've only been listening to them for, what, 15+ years now?