It’s always been a secret ambition of mine to become a Bond
\narchvillain. You know, surround yourself with beautiful women in an
\noverly-elaborate underground headquarters, with thousands of neatly
\ncolor-coded pajama-clad henchmen and\/or thugs, full of gigantic
\ncomputers and machines whose only obvious purpose is to make “ping”
\nnoises. I mean, I’ve got a cat and no fashion sense, so I should be
\nhalfway there.<\/p>\n
It should be gleaned from the above paragraph that I am
\nsomething of a Bond enthusiast.<\/p>\n
This CD was an impulse buy at the record store, more for the
\n“holy shit, this looks cool” factor than any real musical interest.
\nIt consists of 19 tracks, including the title theme to each of the
\nofficial 007 movies (
\nNever Say Never Again<\/i> doesn’t count). This sounds like a
\ndisaster, since usually these themes consist of hilariously badly
\nwritten lyrics delivered in a diva-esque fashion (never sing one
\nnote when nine or ten will do) over unbelievably pretentious
\noverblown orchestral backing.<\/p>\n
The fact that the album includes tracks by a-ha, Duran Duran,
\nTom Jones, Carly Simon and Nancy Sinatra may also indicate
\ntrain-wreck potential. But this disc does contain a surprising
\namount of solid material, plus a lot of absolutely hilarious
\nmaterial (more on this later).<\/p>\n
The first track, of course, is “The James Bond Theme”, the
\ninstantly recognizable rock-jazz theme that opens
\nDr. No<\/i>, the series’ first picture. This track is best played
\nat earsplitting volume in your personal automobile, as you
\naccelerate to approximately 134 miles per hour and start running
\nsuspicious cars off the road. A lot of fun. The other instrumental
\non the record is from “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, which is
\nthe sort of lost Bond movie (the only one featuring George Lazenby
\nas 007). Both are characterized by great rock-jazz-orchestral
\narrangement and general excitement.<\/p>\n
The title themes fall into several categories. There are some
\nhonestly good tunes, some moderately ridiculous ones, and some
\nwhich will likely leave you crying with laughter whilst rolling
\naround the floor.<\/p>\n
Let’s tackle these categories in reverse order. First, Tom Jones
\ncrooning “Thunderball” is one of the most surreal bits of recorded
\nmusic I’ve ever experienced. Like William Shatner’s “Mr Tambourine
\nMan”, it crosses the threshold of “bad” and enters wholly
\ndifferent, and uncharted, territory. Duran Duran’s “A View To A
\nKill” isn’t quite as stupefying, but still pretty much awful.<\/p>\n
Most of the tracks on the album fall into the “forgettable”
\nmiddle ground. The a-ha track isn’t insultingly bad, but doesn’t
\nreally go anywhere. Nor does “You Only Live Twice,” performed by
\nNancy Sinatra, or Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only”. Rather
\nsurprisingly, the two Brosnan-era songs included – Tina Turner’s
\n“Goldeneye” and Sheryl Crow’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” – are very
\nmediocre. Unfortunately, this collection doesn’t include Garbage’s
\ntheme for “The World Is Not Enough,” which frankly is excellent and
\nwould have been one of the top four or five tunes on this disc.<\/p>\n
As for the good ones…everyone’s favorite Bond theme is Wings’
\n“Live And Let Die” which makes up for its moronic lyrics with
\nabsolutely ingenious arrangement, including an all-too-short middle
\ntheme that puts you in the midst of the all at once hilarious and
\nexhilarating bayou motorboat chase that makes that movie my
\npersonal favorite of the series. The funkified treatment of the
\nBond theme used in that movie (which largely takes place in Harlem
\nand New Orleans) was the instrumental highlight of that score, for
\nme, and I intend to seek out this movie’s soundtrack album.<\/p>\n
Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better”, from another Moore-era
\nclassic,
\nThe Spy Who Loved Me<\/i>, is a good, catchy pop tune. Gladys
\nKnight’s “Licence To Kill”, although hampered by idiotic 80s synth
\ntimbres, is not only a glorious vocal performance by this soul
\ngoddess, but also reprises the wailing arrangement of “Goldfinger”
\nin the verses. The singer perhaps most identified with Bond title
\nthemes is Shirley Bassey, who did the title themes for
\n“Goldfinger”, “Diamonds Are Forever”, and “Moonraker”. “Goldfinger”
\nis by far the best, the overblown arrangement works well and Bassey
\nshows off a pretty amazing set of vocal chords.<\/p>\n
The best track on this compilation, without a doubt, is the
\ntotally disarming Louis Armstrong theme from
\nOn Her Majesty’s Secret Service<\/i>, “We Have All The Time In
\nThe World.” A touching love song sung in that glorious gravelly
\nvoice, “All The Time” is a lovely song with pretty instrumentation
\nand a generally laid-back feel which is all too often absent from
\nthe other tunes on the album. It’s fitting, since
\nOn Her Majesty’s Secret Service<\/i> is the only Bond movie that
\nreally works on an emotional level, and frankly may be the best
\nmovie of the series, whatever Lazenby’s faults.<\/p>\n
I don’t know if I can recommend this to anyone who isn’t a big
\nBond fan, but those who are will most likely enjoy it. If nothing
\nelse, it’s a fun novelty album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-36446","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36446"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}