As part of their Best of the Decade series, the always great Paste magazine shares their 10 Best Movie Soundtracks. Vanilla Sky lands at #8 and Almost Famous was their #5 choice. Here’s what they said:
8. Vanilla Sky (2001)
Cameron Crowe’s follow-up to Almost Famous was confusing, aching and beautiful, and the music and that played throughout its disorienting scenes—eerie selections from Radiohead and Jeff Buckly, plus oddly jaunty moments thanks to Peter Gabriel Todd Rundgren—perfectly augmented that off-kilter mood. As a bonus, Crowe tossed Sigur Ros in the mix three years before Steve Zissou and his crew confronted the jaguar shark to the tune of “Staralfur.”
5. Almost Famous (2000)
The soundtrack of this decade’s best cinematic ode to the glory years of rock ‘n’ roll could’ve just been a greatest hits of assorted tunes by Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Allman Brothers. While those bands do show up, the compilation plays more like the best classic rock mixtape your dad never made, including perfect live versions (Bowie covering The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man”) and under-appreciated album cuts (The Who’s “Sparks” from Tommy). And after the movie’s sing-along scene, only the soulless can resist “Tiny Dancer.”
