SPECTRE - James Bond #24

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I don't think it's awful. It's merely servicable. And consequently, rather boring. And they went a bit overboard with their new grading toys for the Korean prologue.

Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough both looked better than Die Another Day.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Its the worst of the Bond films looks wise. That flat, overly graded look reminds me of Superman Returns.

Only the score sorta works.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Even the score rubs me the wrong way. I have a really hard time listening to it outside of the film. I liked the extra electronics on TWINE compared to TND, but on DAD it becomes overbearing to the point where the score just becomes a bunch of jumbled notes and turns into noise, even in the film itself.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I agree. I can take the score in small doses.

Bit too "from thick wood we saw planks" music.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Even Brosnan look off in it.

For my money DAD is Brosnan's best performance is Bond. None of the exaggerated affect of TWINE, and he's finally got a weight, menace and arrogance that's fitting of Bond.

Arnold score's a lot of fun too. Would rather listen it than the (mostly) joyless CR.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Song sounds promising. But one of the Bond Franchise's greatest travesties is that Rob Dougan never got to do a Bond song...

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

The song's up.

https://play.spotify.com/album/0iOC24pLNQ6BsEU74GuhNe

I like it, but the tone is nothing like the 15 second preview suggested. Be prepared to hate it.

[Oskar 77]

Falsetto alert!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

Just heard it and the similarities to Barry end immediately after the intro. It's a good song actually, but I've just never liked Smith's voice and I don't like it here either. To me The Writing's on the Wall only very vaguely sounds like a Bond record, and that's purely due to the typical musical accompaniment. Take that away and it's simply Sam Smith's latest track from his current album.

I'm not too keen on it.

[Ricard 2,245]

It's a good Eurovision song.

But this one was better:

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I hated that.

I sort of like the melody for Smith's song. Problem is, I can't stand his voice.

[Jay 37,368]

OOof! to this song!

[crocodile 8,017]

I don't really mind the style or his voice... Just can't remember any of it after a couple of listens.

And not being able to pick up any tune in a Bond song is... sort of a crime.

Karol

[Quintus 5,399]

I thought the melody was quite discernable during my listen. Whether or not it's a good melody only time will tell.

[Barnald 365]

What is it with these terrible songs for big-budget movies being knocked up by bizarrely-popular singers within the space of a day, or even 20 minutes? Seemingly gone are the days when these things are given time and lots of TLC. At least Ed Sheeran's abomination (for The Hobbit, incase you're unsure what I'm on about) went at the end of the film and wasn't part of an iconic tradition.

It's not bad, but the 15-second sample definitely was the best part of the song.

At last I have a stick to bash you with, a la me and Neil Finn.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

I haven't heard the song yet but I'm sure it's dreadful. What a disappointment...

[Quintus 5,399]

Luckily for me I'm not particularly arsed about Bond stuff!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Then you're no true Brit!

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Luckily for me I'm not particularly arsed about Bond stuff!

Neither am I but it's still bothering me. It's that disappointing..

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Luckily for me I'm not particularly arsed about Bond stuff!

I am, unfortunately.

[Quintus 5,399]

I always preferred Superman and Indiana Jones as a kid. Daniel Craig is the best thing to happen to 007 since Roger Moore, though.

Then you're no true Brit!

It blows Steef's mind.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Go back to Poland, you pretender! You don't belong on that sceptred isle!

[Quintus 5,399]

You'll never have a British passport, foreigner.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

[Barnald 365]

At least Writing's On The Wall has no fuckin' ya-ya-ya-ya's!

Fuckin' ya-ya-ya-ya's would improve this crock of arse!

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Where's Ed Sheeran when you need him?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I would love a Sheeran Bond song!

[Barnald 365]

At least Ed would have put a few hours into it rather than 20 minutes

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Moz speaks the truth.

There are no bands or singers who become successful without overwhelming marketing. There are no surprise success stories. Everything is stringently controlled, obvious and predictable and has exactly the same content. So, we are now in the era of marketed pop stars, which means that the labels fully control the charts, and consequently the public has lost interest. It’s very rare that a record label does something for the good of music. Thus we are force-fed such as Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, which at least means that things can’t possibly get any worse. It is sad, though. There’s no spontaneity now, and it all seems to be unsalvageable.

http://www.stereogum.com/1814939/morrissey-disses-ed-sheeran-sam-smith/wheres-the-beef/

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Of course. But EON would pay him for those few hours.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Romão 2,274]

The last good Bond song remains You Know My Name

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

Lol for some reason If I Had Words from Babe started playing when I clicked on the Spotify link. Must have been saved from before, but still gave me a good chuckle. Don't tell me this lovely song wouldn't be a great Bond theme!

As for the real song it's..... eh. Reminds me a bit of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnt2aHn0waA

Wouldn't be a bad Bond song, actually.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The last good Bond song remains Skyfall

Fixed.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

The last good Bond song remains Die Another Day

Fixed again.

[Romão 2,274]

Die Another Day, now that was a truly bad Bond song

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It's a good Madonna song though.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Isn't that the one Filmtrack gave a "FRISBEE" rating to?

[Quintus 5,399]

Moz speaks the truth.

There are no bands or singers who become successful without overwhelming marketing. There are no surprise success stories. Everything is stringently controlled, obvious and predictable and has exactly the same content. So, we are now in the era of marketed pop stars, which means that the labels fully control the charts, and consequently the public has lost interest. Its very rare that a record label does something for the good of music. Thus we are force-fed such as Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, which at least means that things cant possibly get any worse. It is sad, though. Theres no spontaneity now, and it all seems to be unsalvageable.

http://www.stereogum.com/1814939/morrissey-disses-ed-sheeran-sam-smith/wheres-the-beef/

It's like that guy typed typed words made out of my brain's thoughts.

I would love a Sheeran Bond song!

No James Blunt for Bond?

[Ricard 2,245]

It's a good Madonna song though.

It's actually one of her worst songs. I always skip it when I listen to her shows.

[Quintus 5,399]

It's shite.

Anyway, I bet the only reason they settled for Smith in the end is because actual talent Emeli Sandé turned them the fuck down.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hmmm...James Blunt for Bond....

Interesting.

He served his country you know!

[Quintus 5,399]

He averted WWIII

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Just like Bond!

[Quintus 5,399]

Beat this:

https://youtu.be/czWLEbNwjCI

[peter.anschutz 43]

For the Craig films, I rather liked "You Know My Name", apart from the senseless screaming at the end. Whatever that song was in Quantum made me want to plug my ears in the theater, and I haven't listened to it since... "Skyfall" was good in that I could actually listen to it without my ears bleeding.

The instrumentation heard in that short preview of the new song reminds me of the early Bond opening songs, and I wonder (hope) if they're hearkening back to the old Barry style with the film score as well. I'm not all that familiar with Thomas Newman to know if he's capable of that kind of scoring, but his work on Skyfall didn't really do it for me...

[Quintus 5,399]

You Know My Name was particularly good because it didn't need the Bond association to be that.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Now that's a Bond song with fucking bollocks and imagination. Nerve shredding string arrangement from Michel Columbier merged and processed through Mirwais Ahmadzai's electroclash kaleidoscope. Gotta love those detuned, syncopated house chords at 1:42.

Similarly, the song Madonna provided for this sequence is pure dynamite. Few elements of the Bond song aesthetic remain standing after she's done, and what elements remain have been subtly transformed. At first the song seems drawn to the safety of convention: it starts with some spooky strings, and seems to want to set up a catchy vocal melody. But there's something grudging about even that: the verse's melody is grappy and clipped, repetitious, confined to a four-note segment of the minor scale; the voice is digitally processed to the point that it sounds like an android Madonna. Pretty quickly, this seems barely like a melody at all, especially against the string arrangement that precedes it and undergirds it.

As the song unfolds, there are moments when the vocal melody seems like it's about to shake free, but then something barges in to obstruct it. All the while, a pervasive electronic-dance-music aesthetic keeps telling us that the voice be heard as an unwelcome imposition on the synth-and-drum-machine-driven groove. It's a song that no longer has much use for a singer. For decades, Bond singers had gotten to play coy, had gotten to threaten, to menace, to entice--none of this possible for Madonna's voice in "Die Another Day." Just getting a word in, or perhaps, a word out, in the sonic swirl around her, counts as a kind of victory.

The instrumentation, musical arrangment, and production, too, tell you this is not the typical James Bond song. Beyond the strings, whose presents the Bond sound, there are no traditional instruments. And even though the strings are real (not sampled), arranged by legendary film composer Michel Colombier, like Madonna's voice they're brought into the digital domain to be chopped up, distorted, and otherwise defamiliarized. "Die Another Day" preserves the string section and the emphasis on vocals of the typical Bond song, but it uses digital signal-processing to destabilize the sense of warmth and humanity strings and singing voices normally create. Most everything else is synths, and more synths that are programmed to sound "synthetic:" like the scorpions that populate the title sequence the synths aren't pretending to be other instruments or voices, they are just pretending.

Madonna and her collaborator on the song, the French guitarist/producers Mirwais Ahmadzai. were very resolute about bringing the Bond songs into the world of techno. This wasn't only a matter of using electronic sounds. It meant engaging with techno's history. To take one example: the synth bass that enters about thirty seconds in mimics the Roland TB-303 Bass Line. an artificial sounding mini-synthesiser. associated with techno, acid and rave of the late eighties and early ninties. Madonna and Ahmadzai likely understood that using the TB-303 in techno's accustomed manner, with overdriven filter sweeps and the notes bending into each other. would create fissures not just on the surface of the Bond-song, but in the Bond-song audience. The kind of middle-of-the-road hearing that united listeners around songs like "You Only Live Twice" was suddenly subdivided into those who know and those that felt (and in fact were) left out. Some would hear such sounds and realize that they had a history, and specific cultural resonances, while others would just experience them as alienating and weird.

So the record presents a combustible mixture that both fulfils and subverts basic Bond-song conventions. Android or not, the voice is still recognisably Madonna's: it has the Bond song's traditional celebrity vocalist and a whole apparatus designed to make her sound strange. And despite the choppiness and other characteristics of electronic dance music, the song still works as voice-driven pop. It's probably a virute of this record that it was insufficiently "pop" for Bond fans and film critics (who heard it as flat, too electronic, repetitious, not hooky enough), and too vocalcentric for dance music aficionados--while still reaching single digits on the pop and dance charts.

From The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism by Adrian Daub and Charles Kronengold.