Top 5 Soundtracks for Romantic Comedies

It seems the best way to discover new music these days is to watch movies and hopefully stumble upon good music within the movie (at least for me). Strange enough, only romantic comedies do this for me. This list consists of movies that I have seen, so if you think I've missed a really good movie soundtrack, do say something in the comments.

Without further ado, here are my top 5 so far:

5. Silver Linings Playbook

I admit, the soundtrack is barely noticeable, except for its overwhelming love for Stevie Wonder.

Best musical moment: The scene outside the theater where Pat once again goes bonkers over "My Cheri Amor". The pleasant, jolly musical backdrop to Pat's inner turmoil is nothing short of genius, and in my experience, quite true in real life. Ever tried cheering yourself up with 'happy' music with a broken heart?


4. Garden State

This movie introduced me to The Shins, Zero 7, and Nick Drake, and I felt this movie would've sucked if it weren't for the great soundtrack (and Natalie Portman).

Best musical moment: The airport scene, with Frou Frou's "Let Go" in the background.


3. Crazy Stupid Love

This movie introduced me to The Middle East, and a really quirky, mexican-flavored reggae version of the song "Animal" by Miike Snow. Late Night Alumni is also here.

Best Musical Moment: Not surprisingly, the end scene with Middle East's "Blood". I guess I'm a sucker for songs that close a movie really well (see number 4).


2. 500 Days of Summer

This movie introduced me to The Smiths, Temper Trap, and Carla Bruni.

Best Musical Scene: It involves a song I don't even particularly like - it's the scene where ailing Tom distracts himself with architecture while Summer gets married, with Wolfmother's "Vagabond" in the background. It's the same concept used in Silver Linings Playbook - joyous, uplifting music masking inner turmoil.


1. Celeste and Jesse Forever

I have to admit - I really only made this stupid list just so I could have an excuse to heap praise over this movie's spectacular soundtrack. The movie itself isn't that good compared to the others on this list (except maybe for Garden State), but the music here is just fabulous. This is probably the only movie where the soundtrack literally jumped out of the screen and compelled me to go look for each and every song. It introduced me to a bevy of artists I've never heard of before (Vetiver, Sunny Levine, Mr. Little Jeans, Shabazz Palaces, Donnie & Joe Emerson, etc) and a couple of good oldies.

Best musical moment(s): This is a double whammy: The wedding scene with Sunny Levine's "No Other Plans" playing in the background; and the scene right after where Celeste is outside the tents drinking liquor and smoking a cigarette while watching the fireworks, with Donnie & Joe Emerson's "Baby" providing a nice musical backdrop. So much awesome music.


The Honorables:

Arthur

Just because it had a very clever ending with the cut-out cartoons of Arthur and his lady accompanied by Daniel Merriweather's "Little Bit Better".