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Comments
I'm a Madonna fan but I remember my disbelief when I first heard the song. I actually thought it was a joke and that the "real" song was forthcoming. DAD is okay … as club music -- not as a Bond song. I was horrified.
I'm not a Chris Cornell fan but immediately liked his YKMN. I have never liked -- nor ever will like -- the off-key cat-scratch of AWTD. Great beat but painful to listen to.
Skyfall was fine for me from the start. It has an easily accessible tune that I knew would turn into myriad covers of the song from singers professional and … decidedly otherwise.
Now WOTW. First few listens left me struggling with mixed feelings but ultimately left me cold. Most here have nailed the problem but have exaggerated it in my opinion. The background orchestration is quite nice. Will hopefully lead to a promising score if it's used. Smith's voice isn't a problem on the verses (and this is coming from someone who doesn't particularly care for his soulful style); in fact, on verses, it's well done. The chorus is the problem -- the second part where the falsetto begins. And for two reasons: 1) The falsetto itself. Take me out of the song. I heard a young girl sing the same song and it sounded much better because her voice was already higher in pitch and she didn't need the falsetto. And 2) The lyrics at the falsetto are false to the Bond character. It drags the song from a hurt/broken Bond to a whimpering, whiny and whipped Bond (seems completely out of character). Finally, as many have noticed, the song doesn't build to anything. The antithesis of this is Goldfinger -- the ending of the song is electrifying.
So the key to success (since I'm not likely to listen to the song on its own as I do, say, Live and Let Die) is whether it fits the beginning credits and the scene just before it. For that, I think we all have to reserve judgement. Six more weeks.
But please, let's be kinder in our reviews. Do I like the song? Meh. Not particularly. Like Madonna's offering, I think it's better as a song by itself, not as a Bond theme. But that's no reason to attack Sam Smith or his character. I think he put himself into the song to the best of his ability, whether or not I feel it's successful. I give him that.
I'll also add that I'd be interested in hearing the instrumental version.
For obvious reasons, OHMSS would have proved a lyricist's nightmare. But the instrumental is so evocative of the high altitude action of the film. My sense is that's what's in store for SPECTRE, so I'm very surprised that we have another slow ballad
like SF. The tone of SF is dark and depressing. That WOTW is in much the same vein
is disappointing. It's not a lousy song, it's just not the Bond song many of us were
waiting for. Instrumentally, it's not bad. But the trend in recent years is to practically abandon any reference to the title song in the film. So it's hard to know what to expect.
An earlier poster did a nice job of jotting down the lyrics and justifying them. But I think they're very basic, much like Adele's. "This is the end....count to ten...." "I've been here before, but always hit the floor......." These are not thought provoking lyrics.
In Don Black you had a pretty decent lyricist. Yes, I know, he's old school. Time to move on. Chris Cornell's lyrics were far more interesting. Three very good lyricists are Bernie Taupin, Seal, and George Michael. A good lyricist is a poet. And writing poetry is an art.
Imagery, word choice, a turn of phrase, metaphor can create a lyric that tells the story and creates additional levels of meaning. You can read whatever you like into "hit the floor," but it isn't an interesting lyric.
I'm sure I'll warm up to the song the more I hear it, but it won't end up as one of my favorites.
Mendes isn't just good for bond, he's fantastic, one of the greatest things that happened to the series in the 21st century. Definitely hope he returns for a 3rd and final film with Craig
I couldn't agree more. I keep my mind open hoping that this will be a great Bond film but this has me worried that they have not found the magic that was in CR and the earlier films.
just click the link how are toehrs able to respond with gifs
to come and read the comments on here. From casual xenophobic comments like the song is limp wristed, yes Sam Smith is gay, to personal attacks back and forth where the C word is chucked in for good measure. I have to say I'm shocked. I think the song is polarising opinion but currently this thread makes us look like a hateful bunch. Which I know en-mass we aren't, it just is very sad when people can't accept others viewpoints or chose to take an aggressive stance to defend their argument. The irony for me is that if certain members continue to behave like they do then "The writing is on the wall" for sure!
Still beats Madonna by a millions light years though.
As it stands, Skyfall was a little better IMO. Im willing to bet Babs wanted Adele again but Mendes wanted something new & to put his stamp on the film.
Pretty sad that with the arrival of the new title song for a Bond film some of us stoop so low. It's just a song after all. I actually feel quite disappointed by some of the comments I've read here.
Speaking of the song though, I really quite like it. I'm not going to say it's a NDIB kind of classic or hits the highs of GF. But it sounds like a Bond theme. It's got the melody and Bondian style tune. Certainly not a bad song and Sam Smith does a credible job and is a worthy addition to a rather small club of former Bond artistes.
I said it's a limp-wristed song because it sounds half-assed, the lyrics make Bond (assuming that's whose perspective the song is from) sound weak, and the vocals sound like Smith's giving about 50% effort.
I agree wholeheartedly; it's really obnoxious when people rope the guy's sexuality into the song. Why can't they be two separate things?? And something needs to be done about that poster - that's unacceptable.
Ask Valentine Zukofski
How many that bought it are Sam Smith fans? and how many Bond fans? think probably fewer Bond fans than SS fans. And these days for a record to reach number it doesn't have to sell a great many, not like in the good old day of the 7inch single, people like Bowie, T. Rex, Slade et al were selling more in a day than these jokers sell to get the number one spot!
And I still think it's crap!
http://www.inquisitr.com/2431691/lana-del-reys-honeymoon-includes-passed-over-james-bond-spectre-track/
The song to listen to:
http://t.co/jESMLeMTOT
In my opinion, this should have been the theme song. Everything about it is 'Spectre'.
On first listen, it reminded me of TWINE, oddly enough. Perhaps because it seems like it's trying too hard to create that particular "Bond sound" when instead it just comes off as bland. On second listen, I got none of that. I heard distant echoes of Thunderball. I can definitely hear the resemblance that some posters mentioned. On third listen, I'm getting a Lulu vibe. As in something's not right here. It's a bit off for a Bond theme, isn't it?
Perhaps it will grow on me. For now, I will have to agree with the consensus. Smith is talented but this isn't what I wanted.
:))
"You missed... deliberately!"
1) If it's commercially viable and can sell a few more tickets for the movie, then I'm willing to go for a song that I do not necessarily like all that much. Ever since they went looking for popular artists to sing the Theme Song, it's always been about selling more tickets and from a business POV, that makes perfect sense.
2) Somehow I always like to see the OT before I pass final judgement. I have been there before when I thought little of the song but ultimately found it working well with the titles. Examples include TND, DAD and CR.
3) It's not easy to come up with new theme songs I can imagine. One preferably finds a tune that's fresh and new yet at the same time keeps an obvious link to the world of Bond. Skyfall won an Oscar and is basically one stretched-out version of The Bond Theme.
As for WOTW, I've listened to it about 10 times now. It opens with a short orchestral moment that reminds me of Arnold's music for the skiing done by Bond and Elektra in TWINE. Then Smith's voice kicks in and though I wouldn't buy his records, I guess the man can sing. I've never been too big a fan of power ballads but I'm always willing to listen to new things. So far I'm mostly appreciative of the rather sentimental tone of the song because judging by what I've seen in the trailers and all I feel this is where the film is going anyway.
So while I don't see myself playing WOWT in my house or humming it in the streets as often as say TLD or SF, I don't think it's a failure at all. I'll probably rank it in the lower part of the lower half of the theme songs but still well above AWTD, DAD and TND.
"That's right...an inch too low"
And Bond's shot just before "waste of good scotch"
@Zekidk That was a welcome but half-arsed attempt to put in the theme song, probably at Mendes's request. There was no collab between Adele and Newman so Newman didn't want or bother to include it, maybe he didn't even have access to the song until late, who knows.
DAD has a similar situation, the theme is heard for about 5 seconds around when Bond asks for plenty of ice if you can spare it
I am much more offended and disappointed with some of the comments I read in this thread. If I hadn't heard the song I would have thought this was a tragedy for the Bond franchise. It isn't, get a grip, it might not be most perfect Bond theme but it is far, very far from bad.
Newman gets a lot of flak for that re: SF, unfairly.
If one wants to lay blame for the fact that we don't hear the title track woven enough in to the score these days, lay it at the feet of EON. In their quest for 'chart success' marketing, they've more and more gone with 'flavour of the year' acts with big egos. Additionally, these acts may be with different labels and politics get involved. No composer worth his salt wants to play second fiddle to some bit act. Certainly not John Barry, and when he saw this nonsense starting with AVTAK (Duran Duran is the beginning of it according to Barry himself when Cubby acquiesed to their demands for 'creative control'), the 'writing was on the wall', to coin a phrase. TLD was the last straw, where he had issues with the 'divas' AHA. Interestingly, both of these bands now say that Barry's contributions to their respective tracks were phenomenal.
So if one is lamenting the loss of the intricate weaving of score and title track that we used to get during the 60s/70s heyday, one should take it up with EON.
I've always believed that a Bond title track must be orchestrated by the composer and the 'star' should just co-write the lyrics and sing. I prefer the composer be prioritized, because I've realized on rewatches that the score is one of the most important aspects of whether a Bond film is decent or not, & not the title track. Sadly for me, I'm not making the decisions over there.
I had to wait all day to listen to this so had enough time to see it get some rather mixed responses.
I have to say that the opening really hooked me in, it's extremely Barry-esque and initally it just sounds like a redo of what Adele did 3 years ago. However, it does move away from the traditional and stray into some rather interesting territory. For all intents and purposes, WOTW is really a big bawdy ballad with some Bondian elements thrown in for good measure. It would be easy to detest it for this reason alone. There is a cynical aspect to it, as this could just be a previously existing Sam Smith song that has been retrofitted to work with a Bond film.
But that's why I like it. When you expect it drop the big theatrical Bondian cues, it dosen't. It holds back. There's a restrained quality (albeit only slightly) and in it something fragile and vulnerable too. The fact that it's a male singer singing from Bond's perspective makes it more complex and deconstructive. Typically there is a habit for male performers to bring more muscular feel to the Bond themese but Smith bares himself on this song.
His voice is fantastic and the falsetto stuff is really brilliant. However, Smith's talents do not lie as a lyricist, the lyrics are so on the nose and obvious you can't help put roll your eyes. However, this is really epidemic of modern pop music where subtly and nuance have gone out the window.
So as a whole the song is not as complete as Adele's Skyfall, nonetheless WOTW is still a beautiful song. I can't wait to see how Kleinman's title sync up with it.