''Vanilla Sky'' Soundtrack

 

Image credit: Thom Yorke: Robin Sellick/Headpress/Retna

EVEN THE SCORE ''Sky'' and Radiohead's Thom Yorke

Okay, kids, today's topic is synergy. You don't need a marketing degree to know that an event movie will frequently propel its requisite album onto the charts, regardless of the music's aesthetic qualities. Yet occasionally, a soundtrack emerges that works both as a nostalgic keepsake and a coherent collection of songs.
Vanilla Sky is a case in point. Compiled by director Cameron Crowe, it's a characteristically smart compilation. How cool is it that someone could buy the album because Tom Cruise is a hunk and get turned on to a moody, nine-minute tone poem by Icelandic band Sigur Ros? Factor in goodies from R.E.M., Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Jeff Buckley, and Paul McCartney (who recorded the trifle of a title track), and you've got a tidily eclectic set.