2009’s Top 5 Indie Soundtracks That Aren’t the New Moon

Share:

Whatever your thoughts on vegetarian vampires, sexual repression, or the world’s most puzzling sex symbol Robert Pattinson, you can’t argue with the numbers: the New Moon soundtrack has sold 115,000 copies after just three days. If it goes to number one (which history tells us is likely), Twilight will become the first movie franchise to have two soundtracks reach the top. All of this leads us to believe that middle school kids aren’t the only ones drooling over the New Moon. It’s all of us.

And who can blame us? With Thom Yorke, The Killers, Death Cab, Muse, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li, Band of Skulls, Editors, and Anya Marina the New Moon album is stacked. It’s also the last thing you want someone seeing when they scroll threw your iPod. As such, we’ve decided to do the right thing and guide you toward some other recently soundtracks that are heavy on the indie rock, light on the embarrassment factor. Enjoy, and add to our list in the comments.

Where The Wild Things Are — Karen O and the Kids: When Spike Jones was tapped to recreate the Maurice Sendak classic, he asked Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O to give the film some aural loving. Her childlike creations, with members of her own band, the Raconteurs, Deerhunter, the Liars, and a chorus of actual kids, give a gorgeous background to this fanciful romp that is as much fun as the film itself.

Adventureland — Various Artists In many ways, Greg Matolla’s nostalgia-fest Adventureland is a study in the balance between relatability and humor. Often compared to Dazed and Confused, the film’s soundtrack does what the Dazed album did: capture the times with the best of the best. This is the mixtape of hindsight, with David Bowie and Lou Reed joining the Replacements and Husker Du for a batch of throwback goodness.

I Love You, Man — Various Artists A duderock masterpiece. Any disc that includes more than one Rush song and new tracks by Beck, the Black Keys and Santigold can’t be missed.

Away We Go — Alexi Murdoch Dave Eggers’ film debut was bound to have a smoky, moody indie-tinged soundtrack. Much like Garden State or anything by Wes Anderson, you can almost hear the folky bohemian brogue of Alexi Murdoch just by watching the trailer of Away We Go. Padded out by excellent, if not well-tred, tracks by Bob Dylan, George Harrison and the Velvet Underground, it’s mainly a coming-out party for Murdoch. With his great lyrics and thoughtful Nick Drake-esque vocals, it’s a party you should attend.

(500) Days of Summer — Various Artists While it seems against the indie film code to have your actors also appear on the soundtrack (that’s really more of a rapper-turned-actor thing) (500) Days of Summer star Zooey Deschanel gets a pass because her cover of the Smiths sappy torch song “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” is so haunting and beautiful, it nearly bests the original. A folkie’s wet dream, this album hits the heartstrings with tracks from the Smiths, Feist and Regina Spektor. But just when it is about to lull you to sleep, it hits back with punky spunk from the Black Kids, Wolfmother and Hall And Oates. A good mix of happy and sappy.