For everybody who decries the state of contemporary pop music as a vast wasteland of disposable, commercial junk, and for anyone who longs for the days when composers like George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Hoagy Carmichael wrote beautifully crafted songs with hummable melodies and clever, story-based lyrics with real characters in them, I present to you the soundtrack to the film Synecdoche, New York.

Featuring music by journeyman producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and Los Angeles man-about-town Jon Brion, the soundtrack also showcases two tracks — “Little Person” and “Song for Caden” — co-written by Brion and the film’s director Charlie Kaufman, sung by jazz vocalist Deanna Storey. Both of these songs are superbly crafted tunes in the tradition of the American Popular Songbook style as well as being reminiscent of the storied ’60s Brill Building sound of writers like Carole King and Burt Bacharach. Furthermore, Storey’s georgeous, subtly emotive voice brings to mind a young Barbra Streisand, who herself made a mark with such Broadway soundtrack hits as “People” from the musical Funny Girl.

Though there are no official music videos, the tracks were popular enough to go viral with user-made vids on YouTube.

“Little Person”

“Song for Caden”

I hear the film itself is pretty good, too. Check out our Allmovie review.

Watch the trailer.