James Bond: The Gold Edition - In Review
agent007jb
Posts: 4MI6 Agent
As I work hard to get my website up and running, I wanted to take this opportunity to present my review of James Bond: The Gold Edition. My movie and score reviews are quite wordy, so be warned. Anyway, again a special thank you to Lian and everyone at Silva Screen for producing another fine product and for helping to make this review possible. The album can be purchased from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
The Overture:
Silva Screen began their professional relationship with James Bond back in 1993 with the release of The Essential James Bond. Essential is an orchestral album performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and provided Bond music fans with something they had wanted for years, instrumentals of all the James Bond songs. That same year, the label also released Michel Legrand’s score to the rogue 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again. While Legrand’s score had be criticized and bashed by many music and film enthusiasts, the albums lack of availability prior to this release proved quite frustrating to fans of the composer.
Silva returned continuously to James Bond music throughout the 90’s and usually resurfaced whenever a new James Bond film entered theaters. In 1999 and 2000 they released two single CD releases as part of their Bond Back In Action line and later a four cd set was released in both 2002 and 2006 which contained all the music recorded up until that time.
This of course brings us to what we have here, the latest installment and if I’m not mistaken the eighth entry into their Bond catalog. James Bond: The Gold Collection offers an hour and forty five minutes of lovely orchestral re-recordings of many of Bonds popular themes and presents them across two cds. Silva has reached a point where there are too many Bond songs to fit on a single CD and rather than cut secondary themes such as 007 or We Have All The Time In The World, the producers decide to take the middle road and press an album that offers more than the “Essential” albums, but less than their full blown four CD “Collections”. James Bond: Gold Collection selects cues from various past Silva Screen Bond releases and presents them in chronological order by film year.
Before we enter the track by track review, many fans and enthusiasts have criticized this release as a mere repackaging that only offers one new track of music. You will find this observation to be true if you have been a loyal purchaser of past Silva Screen releases. An instrumental of Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” theme has been recorded for this album and Silva decided to scale this release down to a two CD set. Because of this, they were able to price it reasonable at around $20 when there more expensive four CD collections typically run about $40 - $45.
First Movement:
The first track on disc one is appropriately enough “The James Bond Theme” and features the original 1962 guitarist Vic Flick. Recorded in 1999 for Bond Back In Action, the orchestra here is crisp and Vic’s performance is quite distinctive. The hiring of Vic for this recording just goes show how devoted this label is to providing quality in their product.
Album producer James Fitzpatrick made a blurb in the liner notes on a previous release that he had to make a choice on which version of the “From Russia With Love” theme would be recorded. The film version contained an organ while the album version lacked it, and eventually he picked the latter. “From Russia With Love” is a very romantic theme in its own right and the organ would have been obtrusive. “007 Takes The Lektor” is John Barry’s alternate theme for James Bond and the City of Prague recreates it with impressive accuracy.
Conductor Nic Raine opens “Goldfinger” with a concert like introduction before returning to the subtle strings and brass that carry out the vocals that were so masterfully performed by Shirley Bassey. Easily one of John Barry’s most popular instrumental Bond themes, the performance here really brings back images from the film where the theme was used so heavily and with such success. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is absent here and only the main “Thunderball” theme is presented. While not as memorable as “Goldfinger”, “Thunderball” still offers a sense of grandeur that the film itself also conveyed.
Two pieces of music from You Only Live Twice are represented on this album. “You Only Live Twice” is a very powerful string driven cue that is another close representation of Barry’s original 1967 recording, though some artistic license was taken at selected points in the track to give it a bit of oomph. “Capsule In Space” marks the first time on this album that a score cue has been used. Why this track especially was selected is unknown, but it serves its purpose as a great listening experience and really shows the complexities that Barry weaves into the orchestral arrangements of his scores.
Bond fans divide themselves on which is the official theme of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Some favor the Louis Armstrong recording of “We Have All The Time In The World” while others favor the brassy electronic instrumental opening. Silva wisely gives fans both and a special note should be made on their nearly dead accurate presentation of “We Have All The Time In The World”. Their selection of the cue “The Ski Chase” was a good pick when it came to presenting the opening theme heard in the film. Barry would weave this theme into many of the films action sequences. Synthesizers are tricky to replicate and the City of Prague does an admirable job at it.
“Diamonds Are Forever” is a beautiful Barry theme and while the original LP and CD offered two instrumentals already, the City of Prague again took creative license and crafted another flowing concert arrangement that differs slightly from the original but offers a much richer sound.
Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” theme still remains one of the most popular and recognizable Bond songs to date. Originally written in the vein of rock and roll, George Martin would arrange the theme for his orchestral score and The City of Prague would take pointers when they crafted their own arrangement.
Nic Raine and The City of Prague have never recorded the complete song to “The Man With The Golden Gun”. Perhaps it was John Barry’s displeasure towards the theme or just the orchestras struggle with adapting such a bouncy song. Alternatively a cue heard towards the end of the film, which features the theme has been used and utilizes a full string ensemble.
The Marvin Hamlisch composed theme for The Spy Who Loved Me also remains another popular well known song that earned the composer an Academy Award nomination. Strings, brass and piano carry the vocals of “Nobody Does It Better” in another fine presentation though none of Marvin’s score is presented.
John Barry would throw everything John Williams did for Star Wars out the window and instead treated Moonraker as a space opera. The lush strings of the orchestra echo the vocals of Shirley Bassey and “Moonraker” still remains one of the most pleasant listening experiences on this CD. Perhaps due to its absence on the original EMI album, “Arrival At Chateau Drax/Freefall” is included here to help showcase the action music Barry used for Moonraker. Since both the cues represented in this track have been rumored lost, it is welcomed here.
Second Movement:
The first CD closes out at around 45 minutes and following in film order, Bill Conti’s popular title theme to “For Your Eyes Only” begins on cd two. Previous Liner notes have credited Bill Conti as the arranger of this version and again the City of Prague gives it a strong performance though none of the films score is represented due to its dated techno sound.
John Barry returned in 1983 to score Octopussy and to help distinguish his official Bond score from Never Say Never Again, “The James Bond Theme” and instrumentals of “All Time High” would be used heavily. At the time of the re-recordings release in 1993, the music heard on the Essential James Bond was one of the only affordable ways to hear parts of the Octopussy score on CD. This was partly due to the fact that the A&M records CD was out of print due to a cover artwork error.
It would only be in 2006 that Nic Raine would finally record title themes to both unofficial Bond films Never Say Never Again and Casino Royale (1967). Casino Royale is omitted this time around, but Michel Legrand’s song “Never Say Never Again” gets the City of Prague treatment and while at times there are some slight imperfections, the lush strings and woodwinds really carry the theme along.
Nic Raine finds himself in familiar territory with his arrangement of “Wine With Stacey/Fanfare/Snow Job”. Even right down to the blaring electric guitar, the cue sounds very similar to the original 1985 recording. Such closeness is to be expected since Nic worked with John Barry on this score and its successor, The Living Daylights. As with “A View To A Kill”, “If There Was A Man” also sounds remarkably similar to the 1987 recording, which like Octopussy was unavailable on CD for years. Oddly enough the a-ha opening theme song is absent thus requiring completist to hold onto their past Silva releases. This omission is more of a curiosity if anything, since there was plenty of space on the CD and the music was already recorded back in 1993.
“License To Kill” actually offers a suite of music containing an instrumental of the theme song and a section of score composed by the late Michael Kamen. The theme itself contains a lot of strong brassy elements and is reminiscent of some of the earlier Barry scores. Kamen’s musical cue features a quiet playful string based track and his use of the Latin guitar is heard promptly throughout.
The City of Prague Orchestra has yet to touch any of Eric Serra’s score for GoldenEye and sadly he remains the only Bond composer left off of this Silva Screen compilation. While Serra crafted quite an advanced electronic score for Pierce Brosnans first outing as James Bond, backlash from critics over the music would ultimately paint the score as sounding inappropriate. Serra composed a very lovely love theme comprised of strings and woodwinds as well as a rather effective if not average ending song. Silva offers a nicely arranged version of the “GoldenEye” theme, however it is the tank chase music heard in the track “Tank Drive Around St. Petersburg” that is a real gem for fans. The cue heard in the movie was not featured on the 1995 Virgin CD or its 2002 reissue and only surfaced as a re-recording on Bond Back In Action 2. The theme was arranged by Serra’s conductor John Altman and was omitted from the Serra album for that very reason. With only the film to compare the track too, the City of Prague re-recording sounds very faithful. A fun filled piece of music that certain deserves to have Altman’s name attached to it (credited to Monty Norman since it contains The James Bond Theme).
Both themes heard in Tomorrow Never Dies are presented here and provides fans the chance to listen and choose their favorite. The Sheryl Crow theme was ultimately chosen to open the film and this re-recording uses a lot of strings and percussion to carry the song along. David Arnold and Don Black crafted a classic Barry/Bond song that wound up being demoted to films end credits. “Surrender” always had a very nice sound and the vocals of K.D Lang were terrific. The brassy performance by the City of Prague does the cue justice though this is one of the only rare times that the tempo sounds slower than what was heard on the original.
“Ice Bandits” from The World is Not Enough score is presented before the films theme song. The World Is Not Enough was a very good score and David Arnold managed to have old meet new as the splashy brassy cue meshed with modern drum loops and techno elements. In this re-recording the orchestra is handled very well and the synthesized elements are also replicated nicely. The harp glissando was underplayed on the original album but sounds very prominent here. Of course “The World Is Not Enough” theme is a great theme that represents everything that is classic Bond from its attractive lyrics, full brass and sweeping strings.
Madonna’s Die Another Day theme song was very hard to listen to when it was recorded in 2002. It is a very rough song, not very appealing, nor very listenable. An orchestral arrangement used strings to emulate Madonna’s vocals and the toe tapping sound heard on the original recording is replicated here, though much rougher. I am sure this track was a challenge to record, and one cannot fault the City of Prague for the imperfections on the cue. David Arnold’s score for Die Another Day was also equally unmemorable, at least what was presented on the Warner Bros album. “Going Down Together” is a string driven track that was partially heard on the 2002 album, though as a bonus the cue is longer and provides some additional unreleased music.
Album producer James Fitzpatrick conducts the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra who along with the London Music Works performs the 2006 Casino Royale theme, “You Know My Name”. Since hearing the song for the first time, I instantly wondered how Silva was going to re-record it instrumentally. The arrangement is very good with the City of Prague providing vocals in the form of strings and brass and the London Music Works adding electric guitar and drums to the mix. The two distinctively different sounds mesh perfectly together and effectively make this track a success. We will have to see in the years to come how they handle Another Way To Die, but until then this album closes with a bang.
Final Movement:
My past reviews have shown that I’ve never been wild about Silva Screens artwork direction on their previous Bond releases. Since departing from their stylish cartoon artwork on the Essential albums, their later releases have feature poor mock ups of the gun barrel and plain silhouettes of women that would typically appear on trucker mud flaps. Why they choose this direction is obviously a way to avoid copyright infringement, and while I’m sure that MGM would be happy to license stills to Silva, this of course presents added fees as well imposes some time limitations on how long such stills can be used. For this release, Silva has taken a page from Danny Kleinmans Casino Royale title sequence and the artwork features playing cards, diamonds, hearts, spades and clovers throughout. This is definitely an improvement over some of their previous artwork choices and is approved by this reviewer.
The packaging consists of a standard two CD clear jewel case which is easily replaceable if it is ever damaged. This release includes James Bond: A Musical History, a 24 page booklet offering a wealth of information that starts with the TV version of Casino Royale and ends with the anticipation of Quantum of Solace. The EMI soundtrack reissues only briefly touched on music in their liner notes and instead focused on a condensed history and plot summary of the selected Bond film. Silva instead digs deep and provides facts about the scores, the composers, certain conditions on the scores recording and other juicy tidbits. I planned to skim over the booklet to get an idea what it contained for my review, but found myself drawn into reading the whole thing before ever popping in the first CD. The exclusive booklet is a tad bigger than the jewel case and was never designed to fit inside it. Instead the jewel case and the booklet slide into a cardboard jacket. There is a small tri panel liner notes booklet that includes very basic information about the tracks presented. Information includes the film name, composer and copyright date of the recording.
The quality behind these recordings once again makes this album a success for Silva Screen and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. While I am sure that the lack of new content does warrant some frustration, this album still remains a must for any James Bond/John Barry music enthusiast. Sadly there are way too many “bad” bond recordings out there, some done by unknown synthesizer groups passing themselves off as The Moneypenny Orchestra or The James Bond Orchestra. Like Roland Shaw before them, James Fitzpatrick, Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra have treated these recordings as a labor of love and that’s the reason this album is a smashing success.
5 Stars out of 5.
Track Listing:
Disc One:
1.Dr. No - The James Bond Theme (BBIA1)
2.From Russia With Love - From Russia With Love (BBIA1)
3.From Russia With Love - 007 Takes The Lektor (BBIA1)
4.Goldfinger – Goldfinger (EJB)
5.Thunderball – Thunderball (EJB)
6.You Only Live Twice - You Only Live Twice (EJB)
7.You Only Live Twice - Capsule In Space (BBIA1)
8.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - We Have All The Time In The World (EJB)
9.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Escape From Piz Gloria/The Ski Chase (BBIA1)
10.Diamonds Are Forever - Diamonds Are Forever (EJB)
11.Live And Let Die - Live And Let Die (EJB)
12.The Man With The Golden Gun - Slow Boat From China/Nick Nack/ The Man With The Golden Gun (BBIA2)
13.The Spy Who Loved Me - Nobody Does It Better (EJB)
14.Moonraker – Moonraker (EJB)
15.Moonraker - Arrival At Chateau Drax/Freefall (BBIA2)
Disc Two:
1.For Your Eyes Only - For Your Eyes Only (EJB)
2.Octopussy - All Time High (EJB)
3.Never Say Never Again - Never Say Never Again (JBFMC)
4.A View To A Kill - Wine With Stacey/Fanfare/Snow Job (BBIA2)
5.The Living Daylights - The Living Daylights End Title (BBIA2)
6.Licence To Kill - Licence To Kill (EJB)
7.GoldenEye – GoldenEye (EJB)
8.GoldenEye - Tank Drive Around St. Petersburg (BBIA2)
9.Tomorrow Never Dies - Tomorrow Never Dies (JBC)
10.Tomorrow Never Dies – Surrender (JBC)
11.The World Is Not Enough - Ice Bandits (JBC)
12.The World Is Not Enough - The World Is Not Enough (JBC)
13.Die Another Day - Die Another Day (JBFMC)
14.Die Another Day - Going Down Together (JBFMC)
15.Casino Royale - You Know My Name (Newly Recorded)
Original Music Compositions:
Essential James Bond - EJB (1993), updated in 1997 with GoldenEye
Bond Back In Action 1 - BBIA1 (1999)
Bond Back In Action 2 - BBIA2 (2000)
The James Bond Collection - JBC (2002)
The James Bond Film Music Collection - JBFMC (2006)
The Overture:
Silva Screen began their professional relationship with James Bond back in 1993 with the release of The Essential James Bond. Essential is an orchestral album performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and provided Bond music fans with something they had wanted for years, instrumentals of all the James Bond songs. That same year, the label also released Michel Legrand’s score to the rogue 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again. While Legrand’s score had be criticized and bashed by many music and film enthusiasts, the albums lack of availability prior to this release proved quite frustrating to fans of the composer.
Silva returned continuously to James Bond music throughout the 90’s and usually resurfaced whenever a new James Bond film entered theaters. In 1999 and 2000 they released two single CD releases as part of their Bond Back In Action line and later a four cd set was released in both 2002 and 2006 which contained all the music recorded up until that time.
This of course brings us to what we have here, the latest installment and if I’m not mistaken the eighth entry into their Bond catalog. James Bond: The Gold Collection offers an hour and forty five minutes of lovely orchestral re-recordings of many of Bonds popular themes and presents them across two cds. Silva has reached a point where there are too many Bond songs to fit on a single CD and rather than cut secondary themes such as 007 or We Have All The Time In The World, the producers decide to take the middle road and press an album that offers more than the “Essential” albums, but less than their full blown four CD “Collections”. James Bond: Gold Collection selects cues from various past Silva Screen Bond releases and presents them in chronological order by film year.
Before we enter the track by track review, many fans and enthusiasts have criticized this release as a mere repackaging that only offers one new track of music. You will find this observation to be true if you have been a loyal purchaser of past Silva Screen releases. An instrumental of Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” theme has been recorded for this album and Silva decided to scale this release down to a two CD set. Because of this, they were able to price it reasonable at around $20 when there more expensive four CD collections typically run about $40 - $45.
First Movement:
The first track on disc one is appropriately enough “The James Bond Theme” and features the original 1962 guitarist Vic Flick. Recorded in 1999 for Bond Back In Action, the orchestra here is crisp and Vic’s performance is quite distinctive. The hiring of Vic for this recording just goes show how devoted this label is to providing quality in their product.
Album producer James Fitzpatrick made a blurb in the liner notes on a previous release that he had to make a choice on which version of the “From Russia With Love” theme would be recorded. The film version contained an organ while the album version lacked it, and eventually he picked the latter. “From Russia With Love” is a very romantic theme in its own right and the organ would have been obtrusive. “007 Takes The Lektor” is John Barry’s alternate theme for James Bond and the City of Prague recreates it with impressive accuracy.
Conductor Nic Raine opens “Goldfinger” with a concert like introduction before returning to the subtle strings and brass that carry out the vocals that were so masterfully performed by Shirley Bassey. Easily one of John Barry’s most popular instrumental Bond themes, the performance here really brings back images from the film where the theme was used so heavily and with such success. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is absent here and only the main “Thunderball” theme is presented. While not as memorable as “Goldfinger”, “Thunderball” still offers a sense of grandeur that the film itself also conveyed.
Two pieces of music from You Only Live Twice are represented on this album. “You Only Live Twice” is a very powerful string driven cue that is another close representation of Barry’s original 1967 recording, though some artistic license was taken at selected points in the track to give it a bit of oomph. “Capsule In Space” marks the first time on this album that a score cue has been used. Why this track especially was selected is unknown, but it serves its purpose as a great listening experience and really shows the complexities that Barry weaves into the orchestral arrangements of his scores.
Bond fans divide themselves on which is the official theme of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Some favor the Louis Armstrong recording of “We Have All The Time In The World” while others favor the brassy electronic instrumental opening. Silva wisely gives fans both and a special note should be made on their nearly dead accurate presentation of “We Have All The Time In The World”. Their selection of the cue “The Ski Chase” was a good pick when it came to presenting the opening theme heard in the film. Barry would weave this theme into many of the films action sequences. Synthesizers are tricky to replicate and the City of Prague does an admirable job at it.
“Diamonds Are Forever” is a beautiful Barry theme and while the original LP and CD offered two instrumentals already, the City of Prague again took creative license and crafted another flowing concert arrangement that differs slightly from the original but offers a much richer sound.
Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” theme still remains one of the most popular and recognizable Bond songs to date. Originally written in the vein of rock and roll, George Martin would arrange the theme for his orchestral score and The City of Prague would take pointers when they crafted their own arrangement.
Nic Raine and The City of Prague have never recorded the complete song to “The Man With The Golden Gun”. Perhaps it was John Barry’s displeasure towards the theme or just the orchestras struggle with adapting such a bouncy song. Alternatively a cue heard towards the end of the film, which features the theme has been used and utilizes a full string ensemble.
The Marvin Hamlisch composed theme for The Spy Who Loved Me also remains another popular well known song that earned the composer an Academy Award nomination. Strings, brass and piano carry the vocals of “Nobody Does It Better” in another fine presentation though none of Marvin’s score is presented.
John Barry would throw everything John Williams did for Star Wars out the window and instead treated Moonraker as a space opera. The lush strings of the orchestra echo the vocals of Shirley Bassey and “Moonraker” still remains one of the most pleasant listening experiences on this CD. Perhaps due to its absence on the original EMI album, “Arrival At Chateau Drax/Freefall” is included here to help showcase the action music Barry used for Moonraker. Since both the cues represented in this track have been rumored lost, it is welcomed here.
Second Movement:
The first CD closes out at around 45 minutes and following in film order, Bill Conti’s popular title theme to “For Your Eyes Only” begins on cd two. Previous Liner notes have credited Bill Conti as the arranger of this version and again the City of Prague gives it a strong performance though none of the films score is represented due to its dated techno sound.
John Barry returned in 1983 to score Octopussy and to help distinguish his official Bond score from Never Say Never Again, “The James Bond Theme” and instrumentals of “All Time High” would be used heavily. At the time of the re-recordings release in 1993, the music heard on the Essential James Bond was one of the only affordable ways to hear parts of the Octopussy score on CD. This was partly due to the fact that the A&M records CD was out of print due to a cover artwork error.
It would only be in 2006 that Nic Raine would finally record title themes to both unofficial Bond films Never Say Never Again and Casino Royale (1967). Casino Royale is omitted this time around, but Michel Legrand’s song “Never Say Never Again” gets the City of Prague treatment and while at times there are some slight imperfections, the lush strings and woodwinds really carry the theme along.
Nic Raine finds himself in familiar territory with his arrangement of “Wine With Stacey/Fanfare/Snow Job”. Even right down to the blaring electric guitar, the cue sounds very similar to the original 1985 recording. Such closeness is to be expected since Nic worked with John Barry on this score and its successor, The Living Daylights. As with “A View To A Kill”, “If There Was A Man” also sounds remarkably similar to the 1987 recording, which like Octopussy was unavailable on CD for years. Oddly enough the a-ha opening theme song is absent thus requiring completist to hold onto their past Silva releases. This omission is more of a curiosity if anything, since there was plenty of space on the CD and the music was already recorded back in 1993.
“License To Kill” actually offers a suite of music containing an instrumental of the theme song and a section of score composed by the late Michael Kamen. The theme itself contains a lot of strong brassy elements and is reminiscent of some of the earlier Barry scores. Kamen’s musical cue features a quiet playful string based track and his use of the Latin guitar is heard promptly throughout.
The City of Prague Orchestra has yet to touch any of Eric Serra’s score for GoldenEye and sadly he remains the only Bond composer left off of this Silva Screen compilation. While Serra crafted quite an advanced electronic score for Pierce Brosnans first outing as James Bond, backlash from critics over the music would ultimately paint the score as sounding inappropriate. Serra composed a very lovely love theme comprised of strings and woodwinds as well as a rather effective if not average ending song. Silva offers a nicely arranged version of the “GoldenEye” theme, however it is the tank chase music heard in the track “Tank Drive Around St. Petersburg” that is a real gem for fans. The cue heard in the movie was not featured on the 1995 Virgin CD or its 2002 reissue and only surfaced as a re-recording on Bond Back In Action 2. The theme was arranged by Serra’s conductor John Altman and was omitted from the Serra album for that very reason. With only the film to compare the track too, the City of Prague re-recording sounds very faithful. A fun filled piece of music that certain deserves to have Altman’s name attached to it (credited to Monty Norman since it contains The James Bond Theme).
Both themes heard in Tomorrow Never Dies are presented here and provides fans the chance to listen and choose their favorite. The Sheryl Crow theme was ultimately chosen to open the film and this re-recording uses a lot of strings and percussion to carry the song along. David Arnold and Don Black crafted a classic Barry/Bond song that wound up being demoted to films end credits. “Surrender” always had a very nice sound and the vocals of K.D Lang were terrific. The brassy performance by the City of Prague does the cue justice though this is one of the only rare times that the tempo sounds slower than what was heard on the original.
“Ice Bandits” from The World is Not Enough score is presented before the films theme song. The World Is Not Enough was a very good score and David Arnold managed to have old meet new as the splashy brassy cue meshed with modern drum loops and techno elements. In this re-recording the orchestra is handled very well and the synthesized elements are also replicated nicely. The harp glissando was underplayed on the original album but sounds very prominent here. Of course “The World Is Not Enough” theme is a great theme that represents everything that is classic Bond from its attractive lyrics, full brass and sweeping strings.
Madonna’s Die Another Day theme song was very hard to listen to when it was recorded in 2002. It is a very rough song, not very appealing, nor very listenable. An orchestral arrangement used strings to emulate Madonna’s vocals and the toe tapping sound heard on the original recording is replicated here, though much rougher. I am sure this track was a challenge to record, and one cannot fault the City of Prague for the imperfections on the cue. David Arnold’s score for Die Another Day was also equally unmemorable, at least what was presented on the Warner Bros album. “Going Down Together” is a string driven track that was partially heard on the 2002 album, though as a bonus the cue is longer and provides some additional unreleased music.
Album producer James Fitzpatrick conducts the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra who along with the London Music Works performs the 2006 Casino Royale theme, “You Know My Name”. Since hearing the song for the first time, I instantly wondered how Silva was going to re-record it instrumentally. The arrangement is very good with the City of Prague providing vocals in the form of strings and brass and the London Music Works adding electric guitar and drums to the mix. The two distinctively different sounds mesh perfectly together and effectively make this track a success. We will have to see in the years to come how they handle Another Way To Die, but until then this album closes with a bang.
Final Movement:
My past reviews have shown that I’ve never been wild about Silva Screens artwork direction on their previous Bond releases. Since departing from their stylish cartoon artwork on the Essential albums, their later releases have feature poor mock ups of the gun barrel and plain silhouettes of women that would typically appear on trucker mud flaps. Why they choose this direction is obviously a way to avoid copyright infringement, and while I’m sure that MGM would be happy to license stills to Silva, this of course presents added fees as well imposes some time limitations on how long such stills can be used. For this release, Silva has taken a page from Danny Kleinmans Casino Royale title sequence and the artwork features playing cards, diamonds, hearts, spades and clovers throughout. This is definitely an improvement over some of their previous artwork choices and is approved by this reviewer.
The packaging consists of a standard two CD clear jewel case which is easily replaceable if it is ever damaged. This release includes James Bond: A Musical History, a 24 page booklet offering a wealth of information that starts with the TV version of Casino Royale and ends with the anticipation of Quantum of Solace. The EMI soundtrack reissues only briefly touched on music in their liner notes and instead focused on a condensed history and plot summary of the selected Bond film. Silva instead digs deep and provides facts about the scores, the composers, certain conditions on the scores recording and other juicy tidbits. I planned to skim over the booklet to get an idea what it contained for my review, but found myself drawn into reading the whole thing before ever popping in the first CD. The exclusive booklet is a tad bigger than the jewel case and was never designed to fit inside it. Instead the jewel case and the booklet slide into a cardboard jacket. There is a small tri panel liner notes booklet that includes very basic information about the tracks presented. Information includes the film name, composer and copyright date of the recording.
The quality behind these recordings once again makes this album a success for Silva Screen and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. While I am sure that the lack of new content does warrant some frustration, this album still remains a must for any James Bond/John Barry music enthusiast. Sadly there are way too many “bad” bond recordings out there, some done by unknown synthesizer groups passing themselves off as The Moneypenny Orchestra or The James Bond Orchestra. Like Roland Shaw before them, James Fitzpatrick, Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra have treated these recordings as a labor of love and that’s the reason this album is a smashing success.
5 Stars out of 5.
Track Listing:
Disc One:
1.Dr. No - The James Bond Theme (BBIA1)
2.From Russia With Love - From Russia With Love (BBIA1)
3.From Russia With Love - 007 Takes The Lektor (BBIA1)
4.Goldfinger – Goldfinger (EJB)
5.Thunderball – Thunderball (EJB)
6.You Only Live Twice - You Only Live Twice (EJB)
7.You Only Live Twice - Capsule In Space (BBIA1)
8.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - We Have All The Time In The World (EJB)
9.On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Escape From Piz Gloria/The Ski Chase (BBIA1)
10.Diamonds Are Forever - Diamonds Are Forever (EJB)
11.Live And Let Die - Live And Let Die (EJB)
12.The Man With The Golden Gun - Slow Boat From China/Nick Nack/ The Man With The Golden Gun (BBIA2)
13.The Spy Who Loved Me - Nobody Does It Better (EJB)
14.Moonraker – Moonraker (EJB)
15.Moonraker - Arrival At Chateau Drax/Freefall (BBIA2)
Disc Two:
1.For Your Eyes Only - For Your Eyes Only (EJB)
2.Octopussy - All Time High (EJB)
3.Never Say Never Again - Never Say Never Again (JBFMC)
4.A View To A Kill - Wine With Stacey/Fanfare/Snow Job (BBIA2)
5.The Living Daylights - The Living Daylights End Title (BBIA2)
6.Licence To Kill - Licence To Kill (EJB)
7.GoldenEye – GoldenEye (EJB)
8.GoldenEye - Tank Drive Around St. Petersburg (BBIA2)
9.Tomorrow Never Dies - Tomorrow Never Dies (JBC)
10.Tomorrow Never Dies – Surrender (JBC)
11.The World Is Not Enough - Ice Bandits (JBC)
12.The World Is Not Enough - The World Is Not Enough (JBC)
13.Die Another Day - Die Another Day (JBFMC)
14.Die Another Day - Going Down Together (JBFMC)
15.Casino Royale - You Know My Name (Newly Recorded)
Original Music Compositions:
Essential James Bond - EJB (1993), updated in 1997 with GoldenEye
Bond Back In Action 1 - BBIA1 (1999)
Bond Back In Action 2 - BBIA2 (2000)
The James Bond Collection - JBC (2002)
The James Bond Film Music Collection - JBFMC (2006)
Comments
But only as part of a suite- on "Essential"- and even then not in a usable arrangement.
What a great review! Enjoyed reading every word. I especially was delighted that you included the link to the CR'06 theme - the one piece of music I was dying to hear.
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Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond