I only buy a soundtrack album when I see a movie and go, "Hey, there's a song in this soundtrack that I want to own a copy of."

For instance, I bought the soundtrack to "Never Been Kissed" because it had the original version of The Smith's "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" without having to sit through an entire Smiths album to get it. And in the bargain, I got a few other good tunes from artists I didn't know about.

After having been hit over the head enough times with my daughter's copy of the Shrek soundtrack, I started liking a couple of the tunes on it.

The Tomb Raider soundtrack is a good source of techno-industrial pop-crossover music. As is The Matrix soundtrack. Darn. Reminds me, I need to buy some Propellerheads albums...

One soundtrack album that surprised me when I heard it is the one for the movie Black Hawk Down. Amazing! One of the few soundtrack albums that stands well alone as an album.