Unexpectedly good soundtracks

Paint Your Wagon, except for everything that Clint Eastwood sings.

 

Garden State.

 

Going with the TV genre ... Homicide: Life on the Street always had good music. ER's been known to have good outro music - that's where I first heard "The Fray." Everybody Hates Chris is another show that picks up the time frame, with some really good late 70s/early 80s R&B and hip-hop.

 

What was unexpected about Garden State having a good soundtrack? Pretty much made the movie for me.

Ditto on Empire Records, and anything with David Holmes, who did Ocean's 11 and Out of Sight for Soderbergh.

 

Crossing Jordan.
Get the CD.

 

Good Morning, Vietnam ... funny monologue snipped by Adrian Cronauer plus some good Motown and Louie Armstrong
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle ... film wasn't great shakes, but soundtrack had all kinds of catchy stuff, dated material, laugh-out-loud tunes, just a lot of fun
A League of Their Own ... one of my all-time favorites, with some good background instrumentals, plus Billy Joel, James Taylor and Carole King. Worth the $6 I paid.

 

Wedding Crashers...Rilo Kiley, Spoon, Bloc Party, Flaming Lips. Not what you'd expect from a mainstream comedy soundtrack.

 

Maybe unexpectedly good wouldn't apply to this one, but Forrest Gump had one great soundtrack, and since I had no idea what the movie was going to be about when I first saw it, I guess it was unexpected to me.

 

I guess Garden State wasn't totally unexpected, for the reasons you listed, but it seemed like the thread was starting to devolve into just "good movie soundtracks."

As for one that was surprisingly listenable (is that even a word?), I liked a lot of stuff on the Godzilla soundtrack, including songs from the Foo Fighters and Ben Folds Five.

 

Tin Cup. The movie's just OK, but the soundtrack is great if you like alt-Country (or whatever the hell it is they call it).

 

Same thing goes for the Sopranos. Some of the closing credits music is great.

 

I have a great mix tape made from songs that were on Homicide.

I think I have a good unexpected one: Melrose Place. Still one of my favorites.

As far as the best, Singles, Garden State, SFW and Judgement night.