Sam Smith - "Writing's on the Wall" - To be released on September 25

Largo's Shark wrote:

Smith sounds so fragile there that you could argue he’s subverting the franchise, or betraying it. The James Bond character is lizardlike and amoral, a sex machine who’s always made to regret the rare instances when he allows a woman to hold power over him. The Daniel Craig era has complicated this notion, but not to the extent that Smith now has. Handwringing about a supposed cultural assault on masculinity awaits, no doubt.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/writings-on-the-wall-sam-smiths-radically-wimpy-james-bond-theme/407383/[/quote]

Best part of the article, especially the words: "you could argue he's subverting the franchise, or betraying it."

Almost seems like Sam's never listened to a single fucking Bond theme written before 1995.

Quote :

How do I live? How do I breathe?
  When you’re not here I’m suffocating
  I want to feel love, run through my blood
  Tell me is this where I give it all up?

vs.

Quote :

I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll lustre on.

x

Δ

Erica Ambler wrote:

Take Smith away and the orchestration is enjoyable. Just ignore those childish onscreen lyrics or apply pliers to your gonads and sing along. You too, Dog. Twist those nipples.

That's actually not bad and I can hear how snippets and themes could definitely work in Newman's score. But man, stripping out those vocals puts an even harsher spotlight on the fact that they really suck!

Largo's Shark wrote:

It explains why, but his dig at The Living Daylights is annoying.

I also thought it was strange, because one could argue that Living Daylights was the last good, truly memorable Bond song.

Reading the article LS posted, it seems to be arguing that the song is only good if you interpret the character of Bond correctly - if you see him as being vulnerable. Assuming for the moment that SPECTRE continues the trend established in SKYFALL, then this is a complete misinterpretation. Sure, the vulnerability thing came up in CASINO ROYALE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE, but SKYFALL firmly closes that off. And I haven't seen any evidence from SPECTRE (granted, I know very little about it) to suggest that it is coming up again.

The cover versions are better than Sammy's.

Erica Ambler wrote:

I'm never going to like Another Way to Die, but I can appreciate it on one level. It's demonstrably the work of professional musicians.

Listen to the way the guitar riff is passed between voice and instrument starting at 2:48. Sure, the song as a whole is brash and cheap, but that's the white punk Bond persona Eon was presenting at the time.

Another Way to Die is a thousand times better than the fake soul of little boy Sam. Which isn't to say it's good.

Title/theme songs are like babies....kind of. They pop out every couple of years (unless you're The Duggars) and when they are born into the world you immediately hope they'll turn out to be beloved and great, blah blah blah.

So I remember first hearing AWTD and instantly panicking. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It sounded like someone doing "scat", and a Bond song should never be "scat" or rapped or Country or even Jazz. It should be Rock, or Adult Contemporary. But after about 2 listens to AWTD, the song grew on me like an STD. Gotta say, I played the crap out of that song on my Ipod for months. I don't know why, but I loved it then and still love it. I think I accidentally left it off my Top 10 list in another thread, but.....anyway...

When You Know My Name came out I praised the song, but felt like Cornell's vocals weren't strong enough and, just like now, suggested someone else should have sung the song, so my criticisms of Wiping On The Wall aren't exclusively Sam Smith hate. He's good at the genre he's carved out for himself, but he's totally, totally all wrong for Bond and I had hoped that his being so wrong for Bond was actually me being wrong about him being wrong, and that I was about to uncover a massively surprising great song out of him that would shut me up and prove me wrong. But alas, no.

There's a great tune in there...same as YKNM, same as DAD...it's just that it looks and feels as if sometimes (or all the time, lately) EON is more interested in producing something commercially successful than producing something that is both quality and commercially viable. They're not mutually exclusive. For as limited as Cornell or Madonna's vocal ranges were/are, they merely just felt "limited", not atrociously wrong. Smith sounds like he's got a mouth full of marbles when he's singing, and the song is so depressing you almost want to put a gun to your head.

All of this criticism about Wiping on the Wall is unnecessary. EON doesn't have to go seek talent; talent comes to them. They could have had their pick of just about any major talent out there (including talent not on SONY's roster), and yet this is what we're stuck with, so I cannot forgive such a piss-poor song as this.

SONY had how long to get just this 4 minute song right? It's not like the movie, where they were basically locked into a script nobody wanted with a production deadline looming. This was the best FOUR MINUTES of music they could put over a title sequence? If the theme song is this bad, really makes you start to wonder how this film is going to come off.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

So I remember first hearing AWTD and instantly panicking. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It sounded like someone doing "scat", and a Bond song should never be "scat" or rapped or Country or even Jazz.

I don't really see why everyone thinks the sky is falling. A bad four-minute song played over the titles doesn't mean the rest of the film is going to be ass.

Anyway, I've seen quite a few folks saying that this one makes Adele's track look a lot better by comparison. I didn't realize there was so much contempt for that one — pastiche as it may be, Adele crossed off a lot of the boxes Sam Smith needed to and didn't.

Jack Wade wrote:

I don't really see why everyone thinks the sky is falling. A bad four-minute song played over the titles doesn't mean the rest of the film is going to be ass.

No it doesn't. But they spend 3 years getting the film right and a budget estimated to be $300m to get the film right. So why get the song wrong?

x

On the subject of comments about this ... stole your 'Fleming's Bond would've told Smith to snap out of it. Craig's Bond would tell him to shut the fuck up' one for use on social media, Ambler.

30+ 'likes' so far.

Thread needs a poll.

Jack Wade wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

So I remember first hearing AWTD and instantly panicking. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It sounded like someone doing "scat", and a Bond song should never be "scat" or rapped or Country or even Jazz.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Thread needs a poll.

I gave it a 2. The only thing that redeems it is the music itself.

I also gave it a two, the first fifteen seconds are great but the vocals are as bad as listening to The Beatles without earmuffs.

Voted 5 'Loved it' after Eon made a contribution to my favourite charity. Me.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Voted 5 'Loved it' after Eon made a contribution to my favourite charity. Me.

Whore.

x

I like avoiding listening to new Bond songs until I see the film, just so it's new, fresh, gritty, Phlemingesque etc.

But no surprises that the girly-man has fucked it from what I'm reading here. Absolutely wrong choice for Bond. If they wanted a bloke they should've gone for someone with a bloke's voice, eg. Tom Jones as this is Thunderball's 50th anniversary.

Reminds me a bit of KANSAS' Dust In The Wind.....



Can a song be good/great but be inappropriate for the title slot?

Sam Smith has put together, I think, a beautiful love song (mostly), but he's not the one to sing it...at least not over the title sequence. Maybe if this song had been put tagged on to the end of the film we'd be having a different discussion.

Played it for some friends.

They liked it.

Okay, I asked someone not to download it knowing they would and after a few repeated listenings...

...it's not that bad. The part that spoils it for me is the high-pitched "how do I live, how do I breathe..." chorus that kicks in around 1:28...but the music itself is beautiful.

So yeah, I'll get a single if only out of loyalty...

x

I just don't understand why someone would let Smith get away with that high-pitched shit through out the song.

If you removed those bits, the song wouldn't be all that bad.

The echo at the end of the song is odd, as well.