Die Another Day

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Bond composer David Arnold has arrived to his third Bond feature and it seems the films don't offer the charm nor the thrill they used to bring. And so it isn't fair to criticize and compare it with the material that John Barry worked with all his life. There has been much criticism over Die Another Day, and those were either divided to the song or the overall score. Whether people are Bond fans or not, the song by Madonna is simply put sensational garbage. If she is singing die another day, then I rather wished it was this day since her techno bleeps and stupid voice mixing into techno beats is an insult to everything we heard in the past, from the powerful "Goldfinger" to the more '80 sounding "The Living Daylights". The only decent good thing about that song are the synth violins which appear regularly and David Arnold could have used that as sort of background for his score. Yet nothing else since the actual melody of the song is pointless and Madonna overall (along with her same stupid techno in American Life) didn't show what she could have brought instead. Her '80 and mid '90 showed different things like a much more appropriate "Beautiful Stranger" or the brilliant poetic "Frozen". This song is just not what Bond requires, in fact it is quite the opposite and proves how desperate the producers were to get at least a bit of success for the already stupid movie. The score by Arnold didn't survive much from the reaction from fans either, pointing out how techno and sampled the sound overall was. People rather amused themselves with The World is not Enough and Tomorrow never Dies. But I disagree, The World is not Enough was boring from the middle through and Die Another Day brings in fact a much clearer set of ideas, even if they are heard during the electronic accompaniment a bit too much.

Forget Madonna, hear a slightly upbeat version of the Bond theme in Paul Oakenfold's version of 'James Bond Theme' and move on to Arnold's score. In fact it much more surprised me at hand then The World is not Enough did it the entire time. 'On the Beach' opens with the Bond theme on steroid beats but moves after two minutes to one of its great points, a theme. Used as the dark menacing theme for the villain or the evil they create, this theme will show its charm more then enough in the score. But Arnold's Die Another Day has more themes then that. 'Hovercraft Chase' introduces another one, over the synthetic percussion and beats, there is a terrific brass theme after 2.20 which makes all the difference (appearing also in track 12). Another theme is the love theme for Jinx, appearing in 'Jinx Jordan' among others in line. But simply the fact that there are four themes appearing on occasion is simply one big plus point it has over the previous Bond score. 'Welcome to Cuba' brings even more difference with a frenzied Mambo piece which will make you move to the rhythm at least once. 'Jinx & James' will remind the people of good old John Barry with a soft love theme which addresses all the trademarks Barry would use in his Bond scores. And whether people simply noticed it or not, there is finally a larger degree of choral music to be heard in a Bond effort, and here it reminds me of Godzilla and Stargate (which is simply a compliment for Die Another Day), there is in fact a terrific choral underscored performance of the danger theme in 'Icarus' which you simply will love no matter what.

Bond also has the action music and there are two parts where the synths and beats take to much a form, 'Laser Fight' at the end and 'Iced Inc.' where it opens the score with the most weirdest synthetic loops. However the brass playing which takes almost the trumpets up to the most frenzied performances ever (like Goldenthal did in his Batman efforts), it is the orchestral score which I remembered more then the beats in those efforts. By the way, 'Whiteout' is a terrific action cue if people simply maligned this score to the death because it lets the themes reappear, either the Bond brass theme or the cool theme of the fourth track or the choir showing its excellence when accompanying the danger theme. The 12 minutes 'Anatov' has even more then first bargained for, actually there is a great thematic sense present and the themes appear when they should appear, with the biggest and best choral performance (a la Stargate) of the danger theme on the 2nd minute and on each occasion doing something useful with either the brass, choir or Arabic sounding vocal (even another short great tune after 8.40 which reminds me of a The Musketeer like heroic idea). 'Going Down Together' in fact opens with Millennium (Robbie Williams) like string movements to end with. Overall the 12 minute track shows alone what The World is not Enough lacked in general, an overall sense that things are better structured in thematic sense and even if the beat is loud and fast, it at least is underscored with some of the best ideas David Arnold came up with in the last couple of years. If you want to attack something, do it to Madonna's Die Any Day song because that it the real insult to the Bond franchise. Arnold in fact throws in much more then I first bargained for when I read all the harsh reviews. It has good action moments, four at least interesting themes, several occasions where the choir proves what they could do and simply a more interesting set of music. From the middle to the end The World is not Enough was boring, and even though Die Another Day is far from brilliant, it is an entertaining if loud Bond score which shows a lot more then I ever imagined, making it as clear that anticipation or unexpecting results can often lead to opposing impressions.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Die Another Day: Madonna * (4.38)

2. James Bond Theme: Bond vs. Oakenfold ** (4.05)

3. On The Beach (2.51)

4. Hovercraft Chase (3.49)

5. Some Kind Of Hero? (4.32)

6. Welcome To Cuba (2.07)

7. Jinx Jordan (1.29)

8. Jinx & James (2.04)

9. A Touch Of Frost (1.52)

10. Icarus (1.23)

11. Laser Fight (4.35)

12. Whiteout (4.55)

13. Iced Inc. (3.08)

14. Anatov (11.52)

15. Going Down Together (1.35)

* Produced by Madonna & Mirwais Ahmedzai

** Remixed by Paul Oakenfold

Total Length: 55.04

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: David Arnold ===