With all the hype surrounding Cloverfield's much anticipated monster and record-breaking box office, some have forgotten a small and not quite vital element to its success: the soundtrack.

During the movie’s twenty-minute set-up, we are brought into a “goodbye” party for the Japan-bound hero Rob. However, I couldn’t help paying more attention to the music playlist than the party’s drably TV-attractive twenty-somethings with better clothes, features and jobs than myself. But still, when future historians need to simulate a yuppie hipster party of the late aughts, Cloverfield will provide a rich musical template of the era’s privledged youth.

But despite admirable attention to detail, Producer JJ Abrams and crew have not released a soundtrack for the first popcorn movie to re-fashion 9/11 into old-fashioned entertainment. Perhaps because the pop music drops abruptly after the monster starts thwacking the heads off New York City’s landmark statues. There is however, an awesome overture named "Roar!" that plays over the end credits and gives one a good idea of how Cloverfield might have played from a objective "movie" standpoint. (Re: lots of ominous brass and pounding kettle drums)

The Playlist Blog has posted an unofficial soundtrack to the Cloverfield party here, where apparently an indie rock fan programmed the iPod that night, but forget his one or two ironic hip-hop selections:

Coconut Records - West Coast
Kings of Leon - "Taper Jean Girl"
The Blood Arm - "Do I Have Your Attention"
Scissors For Lefty - "Got Your Moments"
Parliament - "Give Up the Funk"
Gorillaz - "19-2000"
Spoon - "The Underdog"
Kings of Leon - "Pistol of Fire"
Architecture in Helsinki - "Do The Whirlwind"
The Black Keys - "Grown So Ugly"
Bright Eyes - "Four Winds"
Joan As Policewoman - "The Ride"
Ratatat - "Seventeen Years"
Of Montreal - "Wraith Pinned To The Mist and Other Games
The PrettyMuchAmazing blog has posted playable links to the songs here