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

Control wrote:

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.

It's a fairly beautiful, if somewhat bittersweet love-song that just happens to be in a Bond movie. My guess is that Smith had this song in his back pocket for a while and, when asked to do the theme song, took him 20 minutes to adapt it to fit the movie.

But Smith isn't 'getting away' with anything; he's being who he is. He's being true to himself. This is a Sam Smith song. They (Barbara Broccoli-Mendes) got what she asked and paid for. Can't blame Sam for producing the song he produced anymore so than you could blame a monkey with a handgun for shooting someone; it's the fault of the people who hired Smith in the first place.

I'm wondering what the opening title sequence will be like to Sam's anguished falsetto. Will Bond be like...running in a field of flowers and picking daffodils with his toes?

James Bond Theme Collapses on Charts

http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/09/29/sam-smith-james-bond-theme-collapses-on-itunes-amazon-spotify-charts-after-5-days

Adele sang in the theme from “Skyfall”: “this is the end.” Let’s hope not. But the new James Bond theme song, for “Spectre,” is a bust.

Sam Smith’s song “Writing’s on the Wall,” was released last Friday to much fanfare. As a matter of course, the song skipped up to number 1 on iTunes and stayed there for a couple of days.

But just five days after release, “Writing’s on the Wall” is down to number 24 — and sinking fast. On amazon.com the single is at number 47. It doesn’t seem to be on the US or Global Spotify charts at all. (Is it possible no one is streaming it? Really?)

Luckily, the song is number 1 in the UK. Maybe Smith is a British thing.

Is the writing on the wall for “Spectre”? Let’s hope not. But the song is not a good harbinger. Basically, it’s awful. It’s a limp noodle version of “Skyfall,” a melodramatic dead end that forebodes no spectre of anything, certainly not excitement.

The single is also simply not radio friendly. It’s long winded, pedestrian, and boring. Your mind wanders before you get to the chorus. And as I noted last Friday, this is the first Bond song I can recall in ages that doesn’t include the title of the movie. It sounds like the theme song for a movie called “Writing’s on the Wall.” Didn’t Smith like the word Spectre?

I hate to say it but it’s important to remember that Smith’s most famous song so far– “Stay with Me”– was nicked from Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” He had to amend the credits and pay Petty.

Choosing a very early songwriter with few credits was a gamble on the part of the Bond people. Maybe they thought they’d get something with a gospel-feel. But Smith simply re-watered “Skyfall.” Also, after Adele’s giant anthem was such a hit, won an Oscar etc, it may have been time for something either more uptempo, rock song like “Live and Let Die,” or a big pop ballad by experts.

Remember too that Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager wrote “Nobody Does it Better.” Carly Simon sang it. Richard Perry produced it. This was like having the 1927 Yankees make your record.

Can “Writings on the Wall” come back? Unlikely.

I think Friedman is correct when he suggests Adele should have been followed with something up-tempo...maybe a rock song. Instead, they doubled-down on the bittersweet love-ballad, but where Adele could pull it off, Sam Smith can't. Or, let's just say his style doesn't work for a Bond film. If this song wasn't associated with 007 people would probably be praising its genius. As it stands it just simply feels like a song outside of its element.

I also suspect the film is going to follow the song's pattern: open big, then probably implode. Don't think it's going to hold steady at the box office like SKYFALL did.

Why get a MAN if the song sounds like it's sung by a woman?

This need BALLS!

I would certainly have appreciated a more upbeat/up-tempo theme after Skyfall, the instrumentals are decent but the overwrought mumblings layered atop are simply ripe for comic misinterpretation. Certainly I am not inspired to seek out anything else from Smith (mind I wasn't from Adelle either).

Saw an interview from this guy about the song, I don't like him, comes across as a garage salesman, not one word out of his mouth sounds honest. He's all flash and no content.The movie edit might be decent.

Heard it on local radio for the first time today.

I'm not disliking it as much as I thought I did almost a week ago, but I'm not buying up Sam Smith cds either.

Video coming soon

It has apparently become the first ever Bond theme ever to achieve no.1 in the UK....much like CR sitting at the highest rating for a Bond on IMDB this is surely one of those sad ironies of our time - in both cases there are a good 15-20 much more deserving cases.

lachesis wrote:

It has apparently become the first ever Bond theme ever to achieve no.1 in the UK....much like CR sitting at the highest rating for a Bond on IMDB this is surely one of those sad ironies of our time - in both cases there are a good 15-20 much more deserving cases.

The Sam Smith fan brigade is out in full force...that's what drove up sales and not necessarily the Bond factor itself.

In any event, good going to market SPECTRE at least in the UK (where a good market was guaranteed anyway).

lachesis wrote:

It has apparently become the first ever Bond theme ever to achieve no.1 in the UK....much like CR sitting at the highest rating for a Bond on IMDB this is surely one of those sad ironies of our time - in both cases there are a good 15-20 much more deserving cases.

A Sam Smith song reaching No. 1 is probably a much better thing than One Direction doing so.

...

Video has leaked. It's intercut with quite a bit of new footage from the film, so may want to skip this if you're avoiding that sort of thing.

https://vid.me/R5KA

EDIT: Official version is out:

Song sucks.

Xenia93 wrote:

Song sucks.

Beautiful song. Terrible vocals. Smith's voice is as soothing as shaving your balls with a cheese grater.

After listening to it many times and resting on my decision, I have come to the conclusion that this is probably the second or third worst song of all songs made for any Bond film, with Experience of Love and Only Myself to Blame edging out Wiping On The Wall.

I've come across dozens of cover versions already on YouTube, anyone of which would have made a better rendition. Nonetheless, the song is simply not appropriate, no matter who sings it, for the title sequence. This song should have been saved for the closing credits, or played someone in the middle of the movie...maybe Bond hears it on a radio while riding the train.

This is NOT CREDITS/TITLE SEQUENCE MATERIAL.

Not a fan of "Only Myself to Blame", Gravity? I enjoyed how it was worked into the score.

One Republic would have been better.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Xenia93 wrote:

Song sucks.

This is NOT CREDITS/TITLE SEQUENCE MATERIAL.

This is what I was getting at. In context of being a Bond title song, it's terrible. And Smith's voice is wholly "unBondian," if you will.

Control wrote:

Not a fan of "Only Myself to Blame", Gravity? I enjoyed how it was worked into the score.

Yeah big fan of Only Myself to Blame. Wish that played over the closing credits.

...

FieldsMan wrote:

Control wrote:

Not a fan of "Only Myself to Blame", Gravity? I enjoyed how it was worked into the score.

Yeah big fan of Only Myself to Blame. Wish that played over the closing credits.

Yeah, it would have been nice. I didn't mind Arnold's end credits suite, though.

Giving it a first proper listen and it doesn't sit. Outside of a Bond film it might do but someone hitting those notes without a pole vault and its 'feel' doesn't feel right but the song doesn't always maketh the film and as long as Spectre punches like Skyfall I don't care too much.

But missed trick with not working "Is that a spectre at your shoulder...the spectre of defeat.." into it.

Ahem.

...poor Danny Kleinman. Dude probably had to listen to this hundreds of times while spotting the title sequence.

The song is now at #124 in iTunes USA and is an abject failure on this side of the Atlantic. If I was a Bond villain I'd love to hurl one of my many assorted shoes at this putz.

Let dat sky fo. Let it crumbo.