Thomas Newman's SPECTRE Soundtrack

A track from Thomas Newman's second Bond score has just aired on radio. The track can be heard here, titled "Donna Lucia".

EDIT: Another track, taken from the radio program it debuted in. Titled "Backfire": https://audioboom.com/boos/3693183-world-premiere-of-new-bond-score-spectre-by-thomas-newman

You can also pre-order the soundtrack on Amazon. No samples available yet, but the track titles are listed.

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectre-Thomas-Newman/dp/B015EZU1QS
US: http://www.amazon.com/Spectre-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B015EZU1QS


1. Los Muertos Vivos Estan (featuring Tambuco)
2. Vauxhall Bridge
3. The Eternal City
4. Donna Lucia
5. A Place Without Mercy
6. Backfire
7. Crows Klinik
8. The Pale King
9. Madeleine
10. Kite In A Hurricane
11. Snow Plane
12. L'Americain
13. Secret Room
14. Hinx
15. Writing's On The Wall (Instrumental)
16. Silver Wraith
17. A Reunion
18. Day Of The Dead (featuring Tambuco)
19. Tempus Fugit
20. Safe House
21. Blindfold
22. Careless
23. Detonation
24. Westminster Bridge
25. Out Of Bullets
26. Spectre (End Title)

Tracks "Backfire" and "Donna Lucia" were played today on ClassicFM. You can find them on YouTube.

I won't listen to it until the score, or even read that soundtrack listing, but is it any good?

It's good news if you liked Newman's score for SF, bad news for anyone else that didn't. Just from those samples, it feels like a grander approach to what he did before. Even uses a choir for the car chase! Towards the end of the "Backfire" track he does reuse cues from the last score's track "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul". This makes me wonder if he'll be reusing other cues from the last soundtrack. You could either think of that as a sign of laziness on Newman's part or accept that the intent with SPECTRE is to follow up on the thematic elements that began in SKYFALL.

So far I'm intrigued and look forward to hearing more of the score, especially how he uses "Writing's on the Wall".

Grander sounds good. I liked parts of SF's soundtrack, but other parts just sound like the usual stuff he churns out.

I'll have to wait. Like the new Star Wars I'll wait to see it in action, so to speak but as I liked Skyfall I dare-say I'll like Spectre.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Towards the end of the "Backfire" track he does reuse cues from the last score's track "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul". This makes me wonder if he'll be reusing other cues from the last soundtrack. You could either think of that as a sign of laziness on Newman's part or accept that the intent with SPECTRE is to follow up on the thematic elements that began in SKYFALL.

I don't think it's laziness. That was actually one of my favorite bits of music from SKYFALL, so I'm glad to hear it again. Similar to Barry's "007 Theme", it's like Newman's suspense or action theme.

Newman does a lot better with the slow, sentimental themes. "Donna Lucia" is very nice, reminding me of a mix of Severine's and Barry's "Journey to Piz Gloria" from  ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. Perfect for Monica Bellucci's character.

Control wrote:

Makeshift Python wrote:

Towards the end of the "Backfire" track he does reuse cues from the last score's track "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul". This makes me wonder if he'll be reusing other cues from the last soundtrack. You could either think of that as a sign of laziness on Newman's part or accept that the intent with SPECTRE is to follow up on the thematic elements that began in SKYFALL.

I don't think it's laziness. That was actually one of my favorite bits of music from SKYFALL, so I'm glad to hear it again. Similar to Barry's "007 Theme", it's like Newman's suspense or action theme.

Newman does a lot better with the slow, sentimental themes. "Donna Lucia" is very nice, reminding me of a mix of Severine's and Barry's "Journey to Piz Gloria" from  ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. Perfect for Monica Bellucci's character.

I agree. I actually like "The Bloody Shot" and "She's Mine" the most, whereas "Tennyson" is just a great piece. As long as we get some great new material by Newman, I'm fine with him reprising certain cues especially if they fit like a glove with what's happening on screen.

"Composer Thomas Newman on writing the music for the new Bond film, Spectre"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p035d1yz#play

SKYFALL was never as big a spectacle as previous Bond films, but with SPECTRE bringing a lot of that back this time and the PTS apparently being the biggest opener of the series, I'm very anxious to see how Newman handles that.

Especially the gun barrel opening, always a treat to hear a new take on that from any composer.

Makeshift Python wrote:

SKYFALL was never as big a spectacle as previous Bond films, but with SPECTRE bringing a lot of that back this time and the PTS apparently being the biggest opener of the series, I'm very anxious to see how Newman handles that.

Especially the gun barrel opening, always a treat to hear a new take on that from any composer.

If it is at the front of the film, that's definitely one thing I'm looking forward to…

RE: The PTS being the biggest opener of the series… Is that something that someone said in an interview? That's a pretty big call after TSLWM, MR, GE, TND and SF…

Given what's presented in the official photos and trailer footage, it looks like it could be among the biggest.

Soundtrack has been released on Spotify. Gonna give that a listen when I go outdoors for exercise.

I'm hugely disappointed that WOTW is not used at all in the score. SPECTRE could have been the best Bond movie ever and it won't be thanks to Newman's bluntness.

Walecs wrote:

I'm hugely disappointed that WOTW is not used at all in the score. SPECTRE could have been the best Bond movie ever and it won't be thanks to Newman's bluntness.

That's a shame! One of the best tracks of SF was when he incorporated Adele's theme into the score. Out with Newman. And Craig.

FieldsMan wrote:

Walecs wrote:

I'm hugely disappointed that WOTW is not used at all in the score. SPECTRE could have been the best Bond movie ever and it won't be thanks to Newman's bluntness.

That's a shame! One of the best tracks of SF was when he incorporated Adele's theme into the score. Out with Newman. And Craig.

I just don't understand why. Skyfall was composed after the score, yet it was incorporated in Komodo Dragon.
Writing's on the Wall was written long before the score, and its melody would work PERFECTLY to score the love scenes.

Newman has no excuses.

Yeah. I don't get why he couldn't incorporate the song but could recycle a lot of the Skyfall motifs. Continuity, I suppose, but even that's flimsy.

Someone at Film Score Monthly is claiming that Newman didn't write the gunbarrel cue for the film.

This score's kind of a pain in the ass to listen to. And who the fuck decided to throw "Writing's On the Wall" in the middle?

I honestly never expected Newman to incorporate WOTW beyond one cue, and that's ultimately because Smith and Newman were never paired together. If there's anyone to blame, I think it's ultimately Wilson and Broccoli for not having their singer and composer work together. When the singer and composer work on their material independently, it usually results in a score without references to the song. We've seen this already with the songs LTK, GE, TND (Crow's, at least), DAD, and AWTD. SF originally had no references to Adele's song but at the last minute it was integrated in "Komodo Dragon" at the request of the producers and I assume this is the same case with the WOTW cue being done at the last minute.

I still welcome Newman if he's offered again, but EON needs make it a priority to have the singer work on the song with the hired composer, instead of creating the song him or herself.

Makeshift Python wrote:

If there's anyone to blame, I think it's ultimately Wilson and Broccoli for not having their singer and composer work together.

Agreed. Perhaps he wrote some small cues incorporating the theme that didn't make it on the album.

Control wrote:

Makeshift Python wrote:

If there's anyone to blame, I think it's ultimately Wilson and Broccoli for not having their singer and composer work together.

Agreed. Perhaps he wrote some small cues incorporating the theme that didn't make it on the album.

Apparently that's the case to those who saw it. We'll see. At this point, I find the incorporation of a song more of a bonus than a requirement. Barry's TLD (which incorporated three songs) was the last score that integrated songs properly.

Here's a very well written review of Newman's score: http://www.filmsonwax.co.uk/spectre/

According to a bonze on the nMI6, Bond is sorely missing Arnold. (Personally, if someone thinks CR was the best Bond score ever, well, blimey).

Hearing the score in the film tonight, the Skyfall echoes were fine and dandy but it was good all the same. Need to get the CD and listen in isolation.

Newman's gunbarrel music was great, despite being partially recycled from the end of SKYFALL. It worked, though, because it connected the two films.

It reminded me of Barry's gunbarrel cue from GOLDFINGER.

I liked the score a lot, and, although I haven't seen it in awhile, prefer it to his work on Skyfall

I was worried what it meant having cues reused, but Newman actually reprises them in the most appropriate moments that are connected to characters. The flute for Q's scene before it transitions to a new location similar to the transition in SKYFALL. The flirtatious music for Moneypenny. M's "Mother" theme reprising with her video recording. The music that played during the journey to Skyfall is now more subtle with Blofeld, which both represent something from Bond's past.

Newman is clearly scoring this much more as a saga of films, rather than episodic approach Barry did.