“Nick Hornby's novel about a middle-aged, obsessive record-store owner and his struggle with growing up in an adult world indifferent to the finer points of soul music was a sharp commentary on life, love, and a decades-long affair with popular music. If any movie has to have a decent soundtrack it's this one. And it does. Perhaps a little light on soul (Stevie Wonder is a hip pick, but how about Arthur Alexander or even Otis Redding?), it specializes in cult and indie bands that should be familiar to many. The Velvet Underground, Love, the 13th Floor Elevators, and the Kinks honor the old school, while Royal Trux, Stereolab, and Smog represent the newest wave. Elvis Costello appears with a strong pick from an odd era (early '80s), and his greatest imitator, John Wesley Harding, is featured as well. This probably should have been a box set–you end up wanting more”. – Rob O'Connor

Musically avant-garde elements have been utilized in film scores for decades, usually as shock elements to denote horror or the otherworldly. In recent times, modern composer Philip Glass has enjoyed varying degrees of success adapting his minimalist techniques to film scoring. Given that background, Don Davis's powerful, innovative score to the Wachowski brothers' 1999 sci-fi hit The Matrix has all the makings of a landmark. Utilizing his extensive interest and training in the avant-garde, Davis has composed what's been touted as the first "New York school postmodern" film score, a jarring departure from his hugely successful work as an orchestrator of such populist fare as Titanic, Pleasantville, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story. The Matrix weds Davis's mastery of musical detail and coloration to a largely atonal postmodern concerto that's complex, dark, and unrelenting. Many film scores have driven tonal writing and heroic motifs into the ground; Davis's deft, sparing use of them here places them in stark, effective relief. The Matrix offers up a rewarding orchestral challenge that may just be a decade–or two–ahead of its time. –Jerry McCulley