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

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

If I had any of his songs on vinyl or 8-track I'd burn them in effigy.

Why is it such a big deal? Isn't it part of the fun of waiting for a Bond film to hit theaters? It's just a movie. It's not like we've all been betrayed by our best friend.

I don't blame the filmmakers for trying to keep things under wraps. They're not obligated to tell fans every detail about the film before it comes out.

Personally, I don't want to know much more about the film until I'm in the theater.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Maybe Sam meant copied from Tom Petty in 20 minutes.

Yep, launched a massive career on the back of a blatantly stolen hook which the emo dullards and coffee table listeners fell for hook, line and sinker, helping to unleash upon us yet another witlessly morbid balladeer. Wrote the song in 20 minutes? Nothing new there then, as Adele's listless pastiche was probably written on a five minute trip to the sh*tter.

Good to have Newman back for the score though, I'm with Control in that awaiting Newman's contribution excites me a lot more than the latest joke of a title song.

x

(…)

Largo's Shark wrote:

Lazenby. wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Maybe Sam meant copied from Tom Petty in 20 minutes.

Yep, launched a massive career on the back of a blatantly stolen hook which the emo dullards and coffee table listeners fell for hook, line and sinker, helping to unleash upon us yet another witlessly morbid balladeer.

Ever heard Lalala, Latch, Nirvana  Together or Omen? Can't guarantee they'll be your cup of tea but they're not the mopy ballads of In the Lonely Hour.

Think I'll just keep it tea.

Control wrote:

Why is it such a big deal? Isn't it part of the fun of waiting for a Bond film to hit theaters? It's just a movie. It's not like we've all been betrayed by our best friend.

Knowing who to trust is everything in this business.

Snippet of the instrumental:

https://twitter.com/samsmithworld/status/645919970400993280

Just heard it myself… Has an 80s Barry sound!

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Control wrote:

Why is it such a big deal? Isn't it part of the fun of waiting for a Bond film to hit theaters? It's just a movie. It's not like we've all been betrayed by our best friend.

Knowing who to trust is everything in this business.

A man who was under surveillance by the British Secret Service... which makes me wonder if I can trust you at all.

Δ

I like the sound of that brief clip, so far.

Well, after all the hype, this is an incredibly old fashioned and sombre song that could be any MOR ballad from 1973 or so.

Probably the least street theme to any Bond film for 35+ years, which isn't necessarily bad per se, but Sam Smith's voice is too high-pitched for me. Just gets on my tits, which is probably the nearest Sam is getting to them.

Not up on youtube as I write, but on heavy rotation on Apple Music for the last hour or so.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a670308/listen-to-sam-smiths-stirring-bond-theme-writings-on-the-wall.html#~pphGAxgKrGRF66

Hate it. It is absolute crap.

Once was enough for me. The tune itself is not bad; maybe if he'd just wrote the song and let someone else sing it he may have been on to something. Maybe let Hozier or Ryan Tedder sing it; maybe Matt Bellamy. So while the theme is quite lush and beautiful, it is completely and utterly ruined by Smith's vocals.

Too whiny and high-pitched for a Bond song. Too melancholy and downbeat. I can't wait, though, to find a decent cover of it on YouTube that I can download to my Ipod, because the song is not without merit; it's just sung by the wrong person.

Then again, if you're a big Sam Smith fan then this song will probably send you to heaven. But for everyone else, it's sheer hell.

x

Erica Ambler wrote:

Very disappointing. Turns out that the string intro leaked a while back is the best thing in it.

I don't hate it, but highly derivative and not at all what I expected. Gravy is right. It's so melancholy I can only assume Spectre is going to have a very downbeat start. Funereal is the word I'm looking for.

Some might say that telling Smith to man-up is homophobic, but he sounds very sorry for himself. Fleming's Bond would tell Smith to snap out of it, Craig's Bond would tell him to shut the fuck up.

Connery's Bond would've bitch-slapped him and then did an interview w/Barbara Walters to talk about it.

Look, i think the movie is going to run along the same lines as this song. It may end up being a very polarizing film as this song will likely be. I mean, is this even the kind of song you could use in a commercial to promote the film? It lacks any real commercial value from what I can tell, But then again, I'm probably out of touch and the song will shoot up the charts to #1.

Fifth listen and it gets worse. It's like a Bee Gees outtake, but without any of the talent. Just a complete dirge full of plodding self-pity.

I've avoided everything from Spectre so far and this doesn't bode well at all. Only positive is that Adele has just cemented her legacy; Skyfall now seems like a giant.

Horrible. Of the twenty-three Bond themes, this is number thirteen - squarely in the middle of the road. It doesn't do anything wrong, but it doesn't do anything interesting. I'd rather listen to "Another Way to Die" because at least Jack White tried to introduce some figurative language into his lyrics. This just feels like an extra song Smith had lying around that was about 80% finished when he got the call from EON, and so he just worked a few references to the film into the lyrics and called it a day.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Fifth listen and it gets worse. It's like a Bee Gees outtake, but without any of the talent. Just a complete dirge full of plodding self-pity.

I've avoided everything from Spectre so far and this doesn't bode well at all. Only positive is that Adele has just cemented her legacy; Skyfall now seems like a giant.

Marrying his voice to this theme is like marrying Herb Albert's Tijuana Brass Band theme to an exciting car/motorcycle chase in NSNA. It lessens the impact of everything else around it.

To think of all the talent at their disposal and this was what EON settled for.

Δ

Yeah, if you're going to boast that a song only took 20 minutes to write then it better be Very Good Indeed and not well below par. Check out the below the line comments at the Grauniad. The most negative reveal since Jack and Alicia gave Her Maj the finger in 'Helga presents Quantum of Bollox', and at least that had some vitality.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/25/hear-sam-smith-bond-theme-writings-on-the-wall-spectre

Δ

Martyn Ware, producer of Human League and Tina Turner, just tweeted:

Quote :

Sam Smith says he wrote the Bond song in 20 mins - it sounds like it...it's an ersatz insult to all the great falsetto voices...

Then retweeted:

Quote :

Sam Smith's Bond theme has me wondering if #SPECTRE will be just Bond sitting in his pants blubbing.  #WritingsOnTheWall #Dirge

Oh dear...

I'm not going to listen to it until I see the movie, but going by 95% of everyone's reaction so far, it's the very reason why I didn't want Sam Smith to be the singer of a Bond theme - you need a vocalist with balls if it's a bloke. Otherwise just get a female artist. And even then, Bassey, Turner and Lang aren't the most feminine sounding either.