50. “Eden” (2015)
A young man named Paul walks up to a DJ in an underground club, asking him to play a track. “It was sort of happy, with a gentle melody,” he says. “A kind of whistling. Tiny flutes… small sounds.” The DJ plays one of the first mixes of Sueno Latino’s self-titled track from 1989. As the song surges an army of self-assured young prodigies emerges from the sleepless hours of an all-night rave. Following the rise of the electronic music scene, Mia Hansen-Løve’s remarkable achievement, “Eden,” essentially has one of the best soundtracks of the decade by default, however, how certain, now well-known, radio hits are used may simply devastate you. Paul (based on the director’s own brother) was a contemporary to Daft Punk, having played the same clubs during the DJs’ early days, even being present one of the very first times the duo spun” Da Funk,” to a tiny room. Years later, his best friend kills himself after finally finishing his long-gestating art project, a graphic novel. While mourning him, Daft Punk’s “Veridis Quo” comes on the radio. “They’re everywhere,” someone mutters. Towards the end, Paul looks on as a young girl plays “Within” on her MacBook, everyone in the room knows Daft Punk now, but only Paul and his friends recognize that they were standing beside them a few minutes ago. While we don’t want to under-sell all the amazing music utilized throughout the film, how the famous French duo’s towering success is used to underscore Paul’s vital failure is haunting, affective and may just break your heart. – AB
49. “The Guest” (2014)
Every review of Adam Wingard’s family-invasion thriller “The Guest” told you the movie’s spooky pulsating score was a homage to John Carpenter’s classic horror scores from the ‘70s and ‘80s, and while the influence is certainly there, that’s only half the story. Steve Moore’s score wasn’t simply chilling and unnerving. “The Guest” is a self-aware, entertaining thriller that’s more than just frights and scares, thus these throbbing synth syncopations have different energy and drive. There’s a dreaminess to capture the teen, coming-of-age aspect of the movie, a sinister oscillating pulse to the ominous foreshadowing, and a wry, knowing archness to its more intentionally ridiculous moments. Moore’s riff on this updated slasher is irresistibly devilish, something you could spin on a dance floor and still get off, albeit maybe with an evil, Cheshire Cat-like smirk on your face. Plus, you cannot ignore the lush, ’80s synth-pop vibe the rest of the soundtrack provides—inspired moody cuts from Love and Rockets, Front 242, Sisters of Mercy, Annie, Survive (Kyle Dixon‘s band, aka the guy who does the “Stranger Things” soundtrack), and obscure ’80s finds like Dutch synth rockers, Clan of Xymox. Very choice. – RP
48. “Spring Breakers” (2012)
Dance music might’ve been rebranded as EDM in the late aughts to sidestep how awkward “rave culture” began to sound, and it made some scoff sure, but there’s a generation of kids who likely grew up with the same affection for the soundtrack for Harmony Korine’s neon crime pic “Spring Breakers” that you hold for “The Breakfast Club” or “Pulp Fiction.” Supervised by the great Randall Poster, and with a throbbing, hypnotic score by Cliff Martinez and everyone’s favorite girl-from-The-Ring lookalike Skrillex, the choice of kinetic songs work as a pretty perfect time capsule of a very particular time in youth culture, with strobe-y pop and dance from Ellie Goulding and Nicki Minaj, and speaker-shaking hip-hop from Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, and Gucci Mane to name a few (plus James Franco, perhaps inevitably, singing more than once). Like the film, it’s arguably not a deep, substantial piece of work, and perhaps already a little dated by now, but nonetheless, the memorable bangers here still hold weight. – Oliver Lyttelton
47. “Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping” (2016)
The Lonely Island boys are the rare comedy collective whose songs are genuinely catchy in addition to being gut-bustingly funny (their baseball-inspired Netflix effort from this year, “The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience,” is funnier than most of 2019’s studio comedies). “Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping” sees Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer skewing 21st-century celebrity inanity through the conduit of a pea-brained, Bieber-esque pop icon named Conner4Real (played gamely by Samberg himself). “Pop Star” is filled with smart, witty digs at the absurd circus of modern pop music, but it wouldn’t be half as successful as a standalone film if the fictional songs written for the movie weren’t both memorable and hilarious. “I’m So Humble” is a braggadocious ode to, well, being modest, while “Finest Girl” sees Conner pledging to make love to a potential romantic conquest “harder than the U.S. military fucked Bin Laden.” “Mona Lisa” is a Katy Perry-esque aspirational anthem that hinges its chorus on the line “Mona Lisa/you’re an overrated piece of shit,” while “Karate Guy” is a wildly inspired hip-hop posse cut that takes martial arts metaphors to their logical conclusive ends (“I’m not kicking something with my foot”… touche, fellas). What makes the songs in “Pop Star” so infectious is that Samberg and his buddies seem to take a lot of joy in writing them. They’re clearly excited about the chance to write and perform these unthinkably silly tunes, and their enthusiasm proves to be irresistible. After all, how can any soundtrack with a song titled “Donkey Roll” not end up on this list? – NL
46. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1” (2014)
Power pop, glam rock, ’70s R&B and soul, and groovy stadium anthems, director James Gunn had an inspired idea for his first superhero movie for Marvel and it totally separated it from the pack. While a traditional score was employed (Tyler Bates), ‘Vol. 1’ of the Guardians franchise was defined by the rock and pop the movie generously employed throughout (Bowie, The Raspberries, Jackson 5, Blue Swede. The Runaways). And moreover, the cool collection wasn’t just K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the Seventies greatest hits, but actually had a point—a mixtape made by Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt) mother to keep them connected long after she was gone. The ‘Vol. 1’ soundtrack is essentially an emotional connection to Quill’s mother, his legacy, and his home, Earth— all torn away from him at a traumatically young age (note: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” technically features a better collection of songs, but it didn’t capture the Billboard zeitgeist in quite the same way, if only because it was more of the same, only better). Not since Tarantino shook us with the groovy “Pulp Fiction” soundtrack has a tastefully selected mixtape hooked us so deeply on a feeling. -RP
45. “Joker” (2019)
Some of us aren’t huge fans of Todd Phillips’ “Joker” movie, but even those of us who think that the film is cynical and mean-spirited can admit that the score is undeniably incredible. If the film has been accused by its most vocal critics for being “self-serious,” it may be because the Hildur Guðnadóttir’s ominous, insistently bleak score makes the movie feel far more dangerous than it is. Guðnadóttir’s music suggests the slow, awful sensation of a troubled mind surrendering to insanity, and the gloomy vibe of the composer’s original compositions compliment the movie’s ice-cold and defiantly pessimistic view of humanity as a whole. And yet, for the funereal nature of this unbelievably dark music, there are many displays of virtuosity. “Meeting Bruce Wayne” suggests flashes of hope that can be snuffed out at a moment’s notice, while “Subway” is both slow-building and visceral: a bracing accompaniment to the movie’s most traditionally entertaining sequence. “Call Me Joker,” the film’s single greatest musical arrangement, does much of the heavy lifting in “Joker’s” action-packed final act, inducing the terrible sensation that the movie’s version of Gotham City has become a lawless hellscape, even as the callous elites who remain indifferent to human suffering are being forced to brutally reckon with the damage they’ve done. If nothing else, “Joker” proves that a divisive movie can still have a great soundtrack, and that brilliant orchestral work can often elevate a story into something worth watching. – NL
44. “Good Time” (2017)
“Good Time” by Josh and Benny Safdie is a movie that never stops to give its viewers a second to breathe. It’s as relentless as any movie we’ve seen from the past ten years, so it only makes sense that the score – a series of rattling and demented electronic meltdowns composed by Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never – matched the film’s intensity. The title theme starts out at an agonizing lurch before picking up into a series of ascending arpeggios that eventually explode into chaos. “6th Floor” barely sounds like music, until it segues into “Hospital Escape/Access-A-Ride,” and suddenly, we’ve been plunged back into the hell of the Safdie’s world. “Flashback” accompanies one of the film’s most memorable scenes, in which Buddy Duress’ goony ex-con slangs LSD at a low-rent arcade, runs from the cops, and eventually finds himself leaping from a moving taxi. “The Acid Hits” distills the peaks and valleys of an acid high into audio form, while the nerve-chafing “Connie” summons untold reservoirs of mania and despair before arriving at a more serene place in its final stretch. This is music to have a panic attack to, and yet it is unmistakably, even proudly groovy – never inharmonious in the way that, say, a Mica Levi score sometimes is. It is blistering, uncompromising stuff, and while Lopatin’s work in this year’s Safdie-directed masterpiece “Uncut Gems” is slightly calmer and more abstruse, the sheer, unrelenting lunacy of the music in “Good Time” stands in a class of its own. – NL
43. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018)
The hyperactive minds of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“The Lego Movie“), delivered the awesomely kinetic and post-modern ‘Spider-Verse.‘ Chocked to the brim with meta-irreverence that brought the hero into the modern age, ‘Spider-Verse’ also possessed a surprising soulfulness that nailed the character arguably like never before on screen. Much of that was achieved by the anthemic, thrilling, and gorgeous score by Daniel Pemberton (“Steve Jobs“) and an eclectic, cutting-edge trap, EDM, and hip-hop soundtrack featuring Vince Staples, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and more. On the cusp as one of the best new composers working today, he broke through here in a major way here, joining Ludwig Göransson in bringing hip-hop and contemporary flavor to heroism. Mixing booming anthem rap and caped compositions, Pemberton’s creative mix of different sounds and emotions always amplified the eye-popping pop-art animation, but also, the deep, courageous notion of Spider-Man as the everyman. The pop and rap on its soundtrack was a killer selection too; Staples track, “Home,” which played on last year’s stunning teaser, the Post Malone/Swae Lee collab “Sunflower” and, believe it or not, the Jaden Smith boomer “Way Up.” The Staples track, in particular, feels representative. You instantly think of it when you see Miles Morales, suspended in sun-stroked free-fall upside down in mid-air behind the New York skyline, diving into the wondrous possibilities he Spider-People will surely continue to give audiences for years. – Cory Woodroof
42. “Mistress America” (2015)
Noah Baumbach’s “Mistress America” is a jaunty, high-energy big city comedy that underscores its cutting observations about codependency, artistic liberties and female friendship with the kind of melancholic ruefulness that has become this writer/director’s stock-in-trade. For “Mistress America,” Baumbach sought out the assistance of his pals, married ’90s rock icons Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (Wareham was the lead singer and guitarist for seminal post-shoegaze group Galaxie 500, and Phillips was a crucial member of the band Luna). Both Wareham and Phillips have a history with the director: they scored his breakout film, “The Squid and the Whale,” they both have cameos in “Frances Ha,” and Wareham has gone on to appear in a few other Baumbach joints, including this one. Their work for the soundtrack to “Mistress America” resulted in one of the finest musical achievements of Baumbach’s career. Their instrumentation here captures the sparkling joy of seeing New York City through the eyes of an untainted romantic, particularly in lovely numbers like “Tracy in New York,” “Hooks and Ladders,” and the movie’s effervescent theme song. As always, Baumbach displays his tremendous ear for pop music here, making excellent use of songs by Paul McCartney, ’80s synth gods Suicide, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. There’s nothing here that’s as tumblr-friendly as the sight of Greta Gerwig gallivanting through Manhattan to the sounds of David Bowie’s “Modern Love,” (from “Frances Ha”) but that’s a small trade-off when the end result is arguably Baumbach’s best soundtrack to date. – NL
41. “Only Lovers Left Alive” (2013)
Jim Jarmusch doesn’t get enough credit for the quality of the soundtracks he helps put together for his films, whether it’s the relaxed Ethiopian funk numbers by Mulatu Astatke in “Broken Flowers,” Neil Young’s rumbling, reverb-soaked minimalist guitar work in “Dead Man,” or his now-immortal use of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in his breakout picture, “Stranger Than Paradise.” In the last few years, Jarmusch’s own band, the noise outfit SQÜRL, have been handling musical duties on his films, resulting in the plaintive, moody sound baths of “Paterson” and the Carpenter-indebted electro-synth noodling of “The Dead Don’t Die.” Jarmusch’s soundtrack for his great vampire romance “Only Lovers Left Alive” is one of his most stunning achievements: conjuring ardor and desolation in equal measure, and sounding very much like a nighttime drive through the seedier parts of Detroit with both windows down. The songs written for “Only Lovers” are redolent of both droning, ageless stoner rock (the kind popularized by bands like Boris and Sleep) and also the kind of mystical Dutch string work practiced by Jarmusch’s collaborator here, composer Jozef Van Wissem. The soundtrack gets a big boost from the likes of Madeline Follin (of indie-pop group Cults) and Lebanese crooner Yasmine Hamdan, plus some non-official cuts that managed to find their way into the movie, including ditties by Charlie Feathers, Denise LaSalle, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Here is a soundtrack to a film that will make you feel every bit as immortally cool as its undead protagonists. – NL