10 Movies With Unexpectedly Brilliant Soundtracks

The Girl Next Door is pretty much your standard teen comedy. B-list actors, hypersexual women and drooling, awkward teenage boys. It's as crass and juvenile as they come, but the soundtrack is anything but. There are some disarmingly sombre moments, like Elliott Smith's "Angeles" and two Mark Kozelek songs, one from his former band, Red House Painters, and one from his current group, Sun Kil Moon.

That's not to say that there isn't plenty of fun. Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" are catchy, light and upbeat. Both, of course, are mainstream classics. But there are also some indie favourites, like Echo & the Bunnymen's menacing yet seductive "The Killing Moon". But some of the choices are remarkably obscure, like Thunderclap Newman's '60s one-hit wonder "Something in the Air".

Groove Armada and Fantastic Plastic Machine provide electronica reinterpretations of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and "Electric Ladyland". And regardless of whether you think they work or not, they're undeniably fascinating to hear.

There are so many different styles and moods here that, if you were to listen to the music separate from the film, it would be near-impossible to guess what kind of movie it belonged to. So, it might not be particularly cohesive. In fact, it's pretty all over the place, but in terms of quality, it's amazingly consistent.