Garden State Soundtrack (2004)I bet you saw this one coming.
As cliche as it is to include this record on this list, that's because it is the ultimate cliche. However, I guess it's a matter of perspective on if that's a bad thing or not.
Most of us know the story of this movie : indie film does good, soundtrack hand picked by director becomes legendary in indie rock, selling into gold record status and making us wonder if The Shins would in fact "totally change (our) live(s)."
Well, as a matter of fact, they did.
It had been a long time since a soundtrack had really stuck in the hearts and minds of most people, and for some reason, according to Braff, it sort of happened on accident. Most of these songs were simply a soundtrack to his current life, most of which really had very little to do with the film itself. But as I read recently, it just seems weird that any of these songs were apart to begin with. By just being a fan, Braff successfully created the ultimate emo mixtape.
There was not one 2004 Winter Break get-together that didn't include a showing or suggestion of watching Garden State, and I truly feel like it had much to do with the music. So much so, that I saw it a whopping THREE times in the theatres, my first time, the second time to hear the music again with the movie and the third to convince a friend that the music was THAT good. Every Facebook profile listed each band in their "favorite bands" section (as if they owned an extensive catalog of Remy Zero?) and The Shins (as well as the other artists featured) were catapulted from indie obscurity to life-changers. The lo-fi collection of music shifted from dreamy to epic and back again, much like the course of the movie. To this day, soundtrack marketing meetings are probably scrambling to have the "Garden State plan". But the best part being that there really wasn't a plan at all. Just really great music . . . finally.
There is absolutely no denying the power this film and this soundtrack had to us 18-20 somethings who encountered it. Period.
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