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  1. Sam Smith’s theme for Spectre has now been revealed. What do we think? He’s not a fan of enunciation, is he?
    (No video yet, just on Spotify.)

    spotify:track:4oWmroatZtMmlgc3havMrv

  3. Has there ever been a good Bond Theme? I mean, it’s become like Eurovision now, hasn’t it?

    McCartney’s song came close to being a proper song but kind of lost it with the pyrotechnics in the middle which he felt he had to do live at every Wings concert..

    Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger is entertaining now in a camp, OTT, nostalgic kind of way, but in 1965 it was shunned by the pop kids. Ditto her later attempts.

    Carly Simon. Hmmm. It’s a good tune, but she was carrying too much 70s singer/songwriter baggage. Domed from the start

    Any others?

  5. The world is not enough was a great tune. Had a lovely shape to the melody, typical Bond/James Barry type soaring strings and Miss Manson channelling her inner Shirley, (ahem)

    • That’s my favourite. It sounds absolutely ridiculous: “S-S-Sigmund Freud, analyze this”.

      Brilliantly, it also plays over a sequence in which Pierce Brosnan is captured and, for months on end, tortured by the North Koreans. As the titles end, we’re treated to a shot of Brosnan, heavily bearded and topless. His belly is enormous. Clearly a North Korean prison with a fantastic dessert trolley.

  11. The best Bond song (best tune, best arrangement, best singing) is from the best Bond film (best Bond girl, best fights, best baddies, best use of hazardous footwear). Now fifty-two years old. Ruddy heck.

  15. What Archie said about ‘From Russia With Love’ only with extra emphasis on the ‘Bond girl’ bit.
    EASILY the best Bond girl (and, no, not the one with the spike in her shoe).

  19. Didn’t the Bond theme finally jump the shark with Chris Cornell, continued jumping with Garbage and then finally cleared the opposite bank with Jack White?

    None of those people are Bond-friendly.

    At least this new character was born out of reality TV, so has the requisite lightweight pop credentials

  20. Now, whist I don’t mean to hector
    Less still, excoriate or lecture
    But one absolute prequisite, damn
    Exists, above all other shit, Sam
    Eponymous it must be. Wot no Spectre?

  21. It’s too restrained, too pleasant, not bonkers enough.

    Whoever said there hasn’t been a decent Bond theme is dead inside I tells you. Dead!

    You know My Name. Great song from the best Bond film and the best James Bond to boot.
    Thunderball. Sertom giving it loads.
    Carly. Marvin Hamlischschschsch, I think so.

  24. I can’t get on with the falsetto.
    In the tonsils of a better singer, this might be alright.
    I wanted to like it. It will probably pack more punch in Doblysurroundysound in the local flea pit as the nudie-lady opening credits roll.

  25. Shite

    Irritable vowel syndrome, not a consonant to be found anywhere. Dull tune and woeful emotionless emoting. Says it took him 20 minutes, maybe he should have put some time into it

    So it’s a no from me.

  26. Amazingly, John Aizelwood has reviewed it in tonight’sEvening Standard, commending its discordant guitar clangs. Unfortunately he’s reviewed the wrong record – an alternative Bond theme by shoegazers Spectres – completely failing to notice the total absence of Sam Smith.

    Of course, Standard readers and fans of Sam Smith care so little for music and music criticism that I doubt anyone will notice.

  27. Any Bond theme is enjoyable on at least one level, for the arrangement, production and nods to earlier themes, and this one is no different.

    I get why Sam Smith got the nod, and he’s talented if you like that sort of thing, but it’s not for me. It’s no Skyfall, let alone not bearing comparison with earlier eras.

    Artists who could realistically have done a Bond theme:

    Coldplay
    Muse
    Lady Gaga
    Amy Winehouse (that would have been something)
    Roxy Music
    ABC

    …any more for any more?

  31. Some music just makes you feel better, and many Bond themes do this for me.

    This one above all:

    (You Only Live Twice)

    But as already pointed out by Archie, From Russia With Love is in a similar vein, as is a non-Bond by the same artist…


    (On Days Like These)

    There was something quite wondrous about ‘easy listening’ in the 60s and 70s.

  33. Like Quantum Of Solace, the title of the film is not the easiest to lever into song:

    His name’s James Bond not Kevin Hector
    Look out, here comes Spectre

    Not exactly great poetry, but preferable to the chosen Dull-fest

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