That’s the advantage of not being English and English is not my first language, because I am not realy listening that attentively to what they sing, but I know what you mean, because if someone is singing in Dutch most of the time it sounds not great to me.
What us un-Bondian about a falsetto? A falsetto voice may not to be to a hearer’s taste, but for me the question is does it suit the song, as well as the song’s relationship to the film.
The manufactured aspect of the falsetto voice matches the manufacturedness of being Robot Bond. As the lyrics say:
I want to feel love, run through my blood
Tell me, is this where I give it all up?
To want to feel love (especially through blood which robots do not have) indicates a desire to return to humanity from the robot state.
2 Likes
Favorite: You Know My Name
Least Favorite: Writing’s On The Wall (Look, it’s a nice song and Sam Smith certainly has talent, no doubt. But it’s all wrong for the movie. The song promises a big dramatic love story that the film just simply fails to deliver. If he’d written a spooky song about a ghost or a specter it would have fit better, much as I dislike the movie itself.)
4 Likes
Favourite: You Know My Name
It ended up feeling like the outlier but I really like the more upbeat rock song.
Least Favourite: Another Way To Die
I don’t know enough about music to give a proper critique but it’s just awful.
Ironically I’ve also realised that my rankings for the songs:
- You Know My Name/ Casino Royale
- Skyfall/ Skyfall
- No Time To Die/ No Time To Die
- The Writing’s On The Wall/ SPECTRE
- Another Way To Die/ Quantum Of Solcace
is also exactly how I’d rank the films of the Craig era. Today at least, Skyfall and Casino Royale could switch at any time.
And on the subject of alternate themes I’ve always been fond of this one:
Despite what the description says it was not ‘rejected’ but rather unsolicited meaning it could never be officially considered. But regardless I still like it more than the one we got.
3 Likes
- You Know My Name/ Casino Royale
- Skyfall/ Skyfall
- No Time To Die/ No Time To Die
And pretty well tied at the bottom…
- Another Way To Die/ Quantum Of Solace
- The Writing’s On The Wall/ SPECTRE
I think both of the bottom two could have been decent theme songs if the vocals had been better. Alicia Keys and Jack White sound like they’re attacking each other with their vocals and come across like 2 cats caterwauling at night and Sam Smith desperately needed a producer to reign in his overuse of his distracting falsetto.
1 Like
Neither song is ideal. Of the two I prefer Writing’s On The Wall, because it has a stronger melody despite the falsetto.
2 Likes
- Skyfall
- No Time To Die
- You Know My Name
- Another Way To Die
- Writings On The Wall
I like all of them. Had Sam Smith simply wrote WOTW and not performed it I would rank it higher.
2 Likes