CD Review: (500) Days of Summer

Various Artists
(500) Days of Summer: Music from the Motion Picture
Sire
By David Chiu

This movie soundtrack to (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, sports Hall and Oates (“You Make My Dreams)”, Carla Bruni (“Quelqu’un M’a Dit”), Simon and Garfunkel (Bookends), and Wolfmother (the hard-rocking “Vagabond”). Aside from those, the soundtrack is a very hipster alt-rock collection of tunes from Regina Spektor (“Hero,” “Us”) to Doves (“There Goes the Fear”) and Feist (“Mushaboom”). The Smiths are well represented here with the immortal classic “There’s a Light That Never Goes Out” and “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.” Rounding the soundtrack off is She and Him (featuring Deschanel on vocals) doing a poignant country-ish cover of the Smiths’ “Please.” Like the great memorable soundtracks before them, this one is full of really strong eclectic songs adding up to something very cohesive and listenable.

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