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

Twitter has spoken.

"The new Sam Smith Bond song sounds like a sad drunk man shouting into a saucepan"
https://twitter.com/fudgecrumpet/status/647302692537266176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"Still think my one's better:"

https://twitter.com/joeheenan/status/647325777831329792/photo/1

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It's just shit. This is a song for Marc Forster's Bond, not Sam Mendes' Bond.

I'm extremely disappointed. The song's so bad that I'm wishing it's just another ploy by EON to cover up the real performer and surprise us when the film is released. I'm in a total state of denial.

Largo's Shark wrote:

"The move in male vocalists has been much more towards sensitive singer-songwriters. There's been far fewer, for want of a better word, blokes."

Interesting comment. So there are no tough guys left, singers or actors.

Control wrote:

This is a song for Marc Forster's Bond, not Sam Mendes' Bond.

If it had been a Helga/Forster production at least it would've been shorter. First 15 seconds would've done me.

Adele must be scratching her bum and laughing like a hyena over this shit.

Can't wait for DD to respond to it too.

bitchcraft wrote:

Adele must be scratching her bum and laughing like a hyena over this shit.

Can't wait for DD to respond to it too.

Yeah, everyone else who's done a Bond theme looks and sounds much better after today. Even White and Keys.

"Another Way to Die" is the only Bond song I first listened to and disliked that only grew into hatred the more I heard it. I'm not loving the Smith song, but if you give me an instrumental take on that I could roll with it.

Thing that really upset me about White and Keys was that they easily could have made a great song (probably separate though). They had good work before "Another Way to Die" and they went onto continue making more good work after, making the Bond gig the most inconsequential part of their career.

I didn't have much expectations for Smith because I never listened to anything of his before that one listening of "Writing's on the Wall", so I have no idea if he could have done better. I won't be listening to any other song of his to figure that out either, I don't care how many Grammys he won.

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.

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I'll go against the grain here and say that I don't hate it. I actually rather like the tune itself...it's at least melodic and pretty and the instrumental bits sound nice (almost like a hybrid of Thunderball and YOLT). The problem is the predictable shitty falsetto on the chorus (just sing it down an octave and be done with it, Sam), and the horribly self-indulgent lyrics. The minimal instrumentation doesn't do it any favors, either, as this is really begging for a rhythm section underneath to at least give it some semblance of variety or motion. The song really lacks energy, even for a ballad.  

The good thing is that, aside from the shitty singing, the song itself is good enough that Newman should be able to make this sound really good within the score. And considering that this was recorded in January, there's no excuse for them to not use it there extensively.  

...and can you imagine Fleming's Bond saying something like "How do I breathe? When you're not here I'm suffocating. I want to feel loved!"? I get that this story will most likely have Bond questioning his future with the service because of a girl, but do they have to make it sound so fucking sappy with the song? Ugh...

The falsettos remind me a bit of this song:

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.

"Another Way to Die" is another piece of shit, but I'll agree that it's better than Smith's theme.

I think they should have had Keys sing the theme and White work solely on the guitar. My biggest issues with the song are the lyrics and not being able to understand what the hell they're saying. That was a major miss, as they're both talented musicians on their own.

"Anotha slinga put his slick trigga finga up ha Majesty"

I'm at least hoping for some interesting screen visuals, silhouette girls etc and of course, Craig's Bond during the opening credits. That's the only thing that might add some value to Sam Smith's contribution to this movie.

No one's gonna offer him 5m to come back for Bond 25.

Day wasn't a total loss, I just had my hair done.

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I will say this though, the opening orchestra is great. The rest .... well it gave me some chuckles on repeat so there's something else that's positive.

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Erica Ambler wrote:

bitchcraft wrote:

Day wasn't a total loss, I just had my hair done.

That is good news. I didn't want to say anything, but it was getting a bit messy.

Landing strip or full Brazilian?

Brasilia would welcome me with open legs.

The Yahoo News headline is pure gold: "New Bond theme song hailed as instant classic on release."

http://news.yahoo.com/bond-theme-song-hailed-instant-classic-release-081355426.html

dr. strangelove wrote:

The Yahoo News headline is pure gold: "New Bond theme song hailed as instant classic on release."

http://news.yahoo.com/bond-theme-song-hailed-instant-classic-release-081355426.html

Looks like Shitting On The Wall is already #1 on iTUNES UK.

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That's just a fancy, verbose way of saying Sam's song sucks.

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