"No Time To Die” - Billie Eilish’s Bond 25 Theme

1234689

Comments

  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    Cajun wrote:
    Way better than Sam Smith's IMO.

    Agreed but thats really faint praise. I like her and hoped for better.
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,686MI6 Agent
    superado wrote:
    On the music video, I expect her to have another bloody nose with the line “the blood you bleed is the blood you owe” lol, and finally, somebody in the Craig movies was forced to dye their hair!

    What does that mean?
  • Revs1972Revs1972 Posts: 78MI6 Agent
    Like it or loathe it, it’s a great bit of marketing to raise awareness of the film, especially amongst the younger audience. 4 million + views in 9 hours, it’s been on breakfast shows and the news during day /evening. Whoever signed her up knows how to play the game :D
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Cheverian wrote:
    MarkOOMark wrote:
    Cheverian wrote:
    was a man singing falsetto.

    It's still a man singing falsetto, but Radiohead's SPECTRE is the title theme for the film as far as I'm concerned :v

    I make an exception for Thom Yorke.

    Unlike Sam Smith, Thom Yorke sounds manly. But I don't have an issue with either of their voices. The compositions are night and day. Spectre is so much better written.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • superadosuperado Regent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,651MI6 Agent
    emtiem wrote:
    superado wrote:
    On the music video, I expect her to have another bloody nose with the line “the blood you bleed is the blood you owe” lol, and finally, somebody in the Craig movies was forced to dye their hair!

    What does that mean?

    She has a music video that my daughter watches and in it her nose is bleeding and it shocks me whenever I watch it.
    "...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
  • drum007drum007 New York, NYPosts: 684MI6 Agent
    I’ve listened to it a good 10 times now and overall, I like it. Haunting and probably appropriate for this story. What’s bothering me about it is that she didn’t write a proper bridge in the middle of the song. The other Bond themes ( and popular music in general) has that. It would lend to a proper build and sound more interesting.
  • jorgem1jorgem1 Posts: 136MI6 Agent
    Billie Eilish is arguably the new Britney Spears! She's only 18 and she'll be the biggest diva of the 2020's! :007)

    Billie rose to popularity as a teenager, just like Britney back in the late 1990's and 2000's.
  • Fiery-BondFiery-Bond Sydney, AustraliaPosts: 13MI6 Agent
    After 24 hours this song has really settled for me. It's the dark side/antithesis of 'Nobody Does It Better'. A heart broken and a life questioned. There isn't another song like it in the series, lyrically and tonally, and feels like a new exploration that only Craig's final film could explore before the inevitable reboot. It's very much what should have been the style for QoS.
    Craig | Connery | Moore | Dalton | Brosnan | Lazenby

    Co-Host of the Très Bond podcast -{ @tresbondpod (Instagram/Twitter/Facebook)
  • CheverianCheverian Posts: 1,446MI6 Agent
    12 million views on YouTube in 24 hours. Top song on Apple Music. Currently the 3rd most streamed song on Spotify. News coverage everywhere.

    Don’t tell me EON isn’t delighted.
  • walther p99walther p99 NJPosts: 3,416MI6 Agent
    Cheverian wrote:
    12 million views on YouTube in 24 hours. Top song on Apple Music. Currently the 3rd most streamed song on Spotify. News coverage everywhere.

    Don’t tell me EON isn’t delighted.
    They must be as its already a massive success for them, Hans Zimmer and of course Finneas and Billie.
    BE.jpg
  • jamesbondagent007jamesbondagent007 Divided States of TrumpPosts: 236MI6 Agent
    I think it's a great Bond theme. As with every theme song, only history can say how it will be remembered, but I have a feeling it will be looked upon fondly for many years. It hit all the right notes for me, and ties in thematically with Skyfall and Spectre's songs.

    EON knows exactly what they're doing with this one. Within hours, tens of millions of listens, reaction videos, reactions of reactions, covers (this one is my favorite: https://youtu.be/-WBxnCRecgA). It's spreading faster than coronavirus. They'll definitely get a box office boost from this one.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    drum007 wrote:
    I’ve listened to it a good 10 times now and overall, I like it. Haunting and probably appropriate for this story. What’s bothering me about it is that she didn’t write a proper bridge in the middle of the song. The other Bond themes ( and popular music in general) has that.

    Only some Bond themes do. DAF doesn't, for example, and neither does NDIB- two themes the new song is indebted to (the first for the intro, the second for the major/minor change in the verse).
    Not that this change is unique, of course.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited February 2020
    Billie Eilish's 'No Time To Die' complements the last two Bond songs, and will likely reinforce some sense of thematic unity between the new movie and the Sam Mendes Bonds. Though I'm no fan of breathy 'mumble vocals' I'd rate the song as a rather engaging if minimalist B-side 'answering note' to Adele's 'Skyfall', lacking 'Skyfall''s complexity and clever negotiation with orchestral vintage Bond music (it would have taken an additional writer to help 'No Time To Die' get to that) but marginally trumping Sam Smith's entry (from which it also derives). I tend to be partial to Bond songs which convey a wounded or heartbroken female perspective, whether blatant - as here - or implicit/'in denial' (I'd count 'Diamonds Are Forever' as coming from that place, and probably also 'Tomorrow Never Dies': both superior songs). It remains to be seen whether the POV in the lyrics of 'No Time To Die' is gender-fluid in its alignment, relating to the swan-song Bond or the villain rather than, or as much, to Madeleine Swann or another female character.

    It's certainly a contemporary piece, but more like background music than the main event. Dare I say it, it would exactly fit as a background track to an emotional 'recoupling' sequence in 'Love Island', the reality TV show which manufactures romantic bonding and betrayal between glamorous, vacuous wannabes in their 20s, mixed and matched against cheeky samplings of music like this. Maybe the Eilish song is reaching out to the same demographic as 'Love Island' viewers, but with a nu-emo vibe as well, and a built-in awareness of the broader interest it commands as a Bond/Craig-Bond song.

    I'll happily be able to include this one somewhere in my personal, John Barry-dominated, mixed-up playlist of Bond music, as maudlin relief to other, 'bigger' Bond sounds. In that way, it'll work like Katie Melua's strikingly melancholic, acoustic guitar performance of 'Diamonds Are Forever', or even like Natacha Atlas's wistfully enigmatic 'You Only Live Twice' as arranged by David Arnold.

    Here is my personal ranking of Craig-era Bond songs (subject to revision after I've listened a few more times to the Billie Eilish song and seen the new film):

    1. 'Skyfall' (deservedly Academy Award-winning; a moving fusion of the contemporary with classic Bond sounds)
    2. 'Another Way To Die' (the track about which I've had the biggest, favourable change of mind: it's experimental but Bondian; muscular but skittish, as was 'The Man With The Golden Gun' in its day)
    3. 'You Know My Name' (well structured grunge rock which rips into the raw energy of a tortured masculinity for the new Bond era)
    4. 'No Time To Die' (the downbeat, feet-gazing tone has some appeal, but it's rather 'B side' in scope, which is why I can't rank it higher in this list, as I'd wish to do.)
    5. 'Writing's On The Wall' (I still don't like this. Bond and self-pitying falsetto don't go.)
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • HowardBHowardB USAPosts: 2,736MI6 Agent
    Good analyses by Shady Tree. As far as the list goes, I wouldn't put Another Way to Die as my number two as I have just never been able to take to the song (although it's a masterpiece compared to Die Another Day). Writings On The Wall I hold in a little higher esteem than Shady does...but....the falsetto part just kills it and the producers should have had the good sense to have told the artist to go back and redo the part. As far as NTTD, like any decent to good song, the more I hear it, the more it grows on me but I still would just put behind "You Know My Name" (my #1 Craig era theme) and "Skyfall" (#2) but it could move up after I see how it works in the film. My real curiosity now is Zimmer's score. If Zimmer has given us his take on or "ode" to John Barry and the classic Bond scores IMO it could be something special.
  • Miles MesservyMiles Messervy Posts: 1,757MI6 Agent
    Shady’s list (and thoughts about NTTD) mirrors my own. I’ve always loved Another Way to Die.
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Of Craig's song's I rank it in the middle of Craig's themes.

    1. You Know My Name
    2. Skyfall
    3. No Time to Die
    4. Writing's on the Wall
    5. Another Way to Die

    I can't find it, but is there a thread of ranking all the main themes? I'm interested to see where people will be ranking this song overall.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited February 2020
    'You Know My Name' is well structured and full of punch but I personally prefer 'Another Way To Die' because it's an intelligent deconstruction of conventional Bond music (which includes 'You Know My Name', in some ways); 'Another Way To Die' perhaps deliberately reflects the disturbance and disorientation experienced by Craig's hyper-masculine Bond in the wake of Vesper's death. So 'Another Way To Die' has an active dialogue with what's gone before (plus Alicia Keys's voice is sublime, and she sounds fine in duet with Jack White). 'No Time To Die', on the other hand, echoes 'Skyfall' and 'Writing's On The Wall' but without bringing anything much new except the most muted tone of any Bond song.

    Arnold unpacked from 'You Know My Name' many elements for the incidental score of CR, and indeed he used it too for cues in QOS. In that sense, 'You Know My Name' fed the last whole Bond score (or scores) which were properly coherent in the traditional, 'John Barry' style.

    On the other hand, Arnold hadn't been able to do much with Madonna's techno track for his cues in DAD, nor was he able to make much use of 'Another Way To Die' in QOS: this is because neither of these tracks was a conventional theme song.

    Thomas Newman, for his cues, largely bypassed the Adele and Sam Smith songs, although, if he'd been minded to do so, I'm sure he could have made more of the 'Skyfall' theme.

    I doubt Zimmer will have been able to do much based on the Eilish number, as it's so minimal; I'm intrigued as to what his musical strategy will be...
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Shady Tree wrote:
    'You Know My Name' is well structured and full of punch but I like 'Another Way To Die' as an intelligent deconstruction of conventional Bond music, perhaps deliberately reflecting the disorientation and disturbance experienced by Craig's hyper-masculine Bond in the wake of Vesper's death. 'Another Way To Die' has an active dialogue with what's gone before (plus Alicia Keys's voice is sublime). 'No Time To Die', on the other hand, echoes elements of 'Skyfall' and 'Writing's On The Wall', but without bringing anything much new except the most muted tone perhaps of any Bond song.

    Arnold unpacked from 'You Know My Name' many elements for the incidental score of CR, and indeed he used it too for cues in QOS. In that sense, 'You Know My Name' fed the last whole Bond score coherent in the traditional, 'John Barry' way. Arnold hadn't been able to do much with Madonna's techno track for his cues in DAD, nor was he able to make much use of 'Another Way To Die': these weren't conventional theme songs. Thomas Newman, for his cues, largely bypassed the Adele and Sam Smith songs, although, if he'd been minded to do so, I'm sure he could have made more of the 'Skyfall' theme. I doubt Zimmer will have been able to do much based on the Eilish number, as it's so minimal; I'm intrigued as to what his musical strategy will be...

    Zimmer's style is minimal, so I don't think he'll have a difficult time incorporating the Eilish/O'Connell theme into the score, especially considering he worked on the theme.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • HowardBHowardB USAPosts: 2,736MI6 Agent
    Zimmer's "minimal" can really get punched up by his arrangers and orchestrators. Add some classic Barry/Bond flourishes and you have what could potentially be a good Bond score. Zimmer is a smart guy and I would think he understands that this score is going to be more scrutinized than others given the rich history of Bond scores so I would like to believe that the last thing he wants to be known for is being the guy who did the crappy Bond score. :))
  • UnderwaterBattle007UnderwaterBattle007 Posts: 284MI6 Agent
    Just listened to it, and I have to say I don't dislike it however it hasn't gripped me either. Best part of the song are the couple of guitar twangs by Johnny Marr. However hats off to EON, they had their first number1 last time out and I'm sure they will have another number one hit with this again.

    I just hope the film isn't washed in piss like last time.
    FRWl, CR, OHMSS, TSWLM, SF, GF, TLD, LTK, TND, FYEO, OP,TWINE, GE, LALD, TB, SPECTRE, DN, YOLT, TMWTGG, QOS, MR, DAF, DAD, AVTAK, NTTD.

    "Do you expect me to talk? "No Mister Bond I expect you to die"
  • Miles MesservyMiles Messervy Posts: 1,757MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:
    Shady Tree wrote:
    'You Know My Name' is well structured and full of punch but I like 'Another Way To Die' as an intelligent deconstruction of conventional Bond music, perhaps deliberately reflecting the disorientation and disturbance experienced by Craig's hyper-masculine Bond in the wake of Vesper's death. 'Another Way To Die' has an active dialogue with what's gone before (plus Alicia Keys's voice is sublime). 'No Time To Die', on the other hand, echoes elements of 'Skyfall' and 'Writing's On The Wall', but without bringing anything much new except the most muted tone perhaps of any Bond song.

    Arnold unpacked from 'You Know My Name' many elements for the incidental score of CR, and indeed he used it too for cues in QOS. In that sense, 'You Know My Name' fed the last whole Bond score coherent in the traditional, 'John Barry' way. Arnold hadn't been able to do much with Madonna's techno track for his cues in DAD, nor was he able to make much use of 'Another Way To Die': these weren't conventional theme songs. Thomas Newman, for his cues, largely bypassed the Adele and Sam Smith songs, although, if he'd been minded to do so, I'm sure he could have made more of the 'Skyfall' theme. I doubt Zimmer will have been able to do much based on the Eilish number, as it's so minimal; I'm intrigued as to what his musical strategy will be...

    Zimmer's style is minimal, so I don't think he'll have a difficult time incorporating the Eilish/O'Connell theme into the score, especially considering he worked on the theme.

    I heard a clip of Zimmer’s score today and it sounds like he will definitely be incorporating Eilish’s music.
  • bosoxfanbosoxfan Posts: 611MI6 Agent
    I didn't see that this one has been posted, I'm not sure there is anything new in the footage but it looks to be the biggest accumulation of the various trailers with some Billie thrown in

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXEW9Bwmft0
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited February 2020
    bosoxfan wrote:
    I didn't see that this one has been posted, I'm not sure there is anything new in the footage but it looks to be the biggest accumulation of the various trailers with some Billie thrown in.

    Okay, I can see, now, from that fan mash-up, how Zimmer might be able to make effective use of music from the song to score scenes of romantic drama, tragedy and eerie villainy. The nu-emo quality of the song could potentially serve a mood of quiet eeriness, a quality which till now was arguably best achieved in the sinister SPECTRE-related cues of FRWL.

    I remain intrigued as to how Zimmer will work the action sequences, because it's there, I'd imagine, that he'll need to bring in something more, beyond the song's music.

    In terms of history, John Barry often - though not always - wrote material into main title tracks that he could then unpack ingeniously into action sequences.

    David Arnold wrote some exciting Barryesque action cues of his own, albeit dating them during the Brosnan years with unfortunate layers of techno 'gurgling' and 'farting' effects (as for the Thames boat chase in TWINE).

    Again during the Brosnan years, Arnold sometimes resorted to straightforwardly generic arrangements of The James Bond Theme (techno elements aside); Thomas Newman, later on, held closely to Arnold's work in the Bond theme department.

    For action music *other* than the Bond theme (always a real test), there's a risk that Hans Zimmer may do something too similar to Newman, whose score for the fight with Patrice in Shanghai, for example, or the car chase in Rome in SP, was, though serviceable, standard issue contemporary action music and 'samey' rather than (to my ears) in any way distinctively Bondian.

    There's always a fine line to draw in Bond music between the new and the traditional. As a Bond song 'No Time To Die' needed a little something more, imho, but overall I have faith in Zimmer to give us a decent score.
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Shady Tree wrote:
    bosoxfan wrote:
    I didn't see that this one has been posted, I'm not sure there is anything new in the footage but it looks to be the biggest accumulation of the various trailers with some Billie thrown in.

    Okay, I can see, now, from that fan mash-up, how Zimmer might be able to make effective use of music from the song to score scenes of romantic drama, tragedy and eerie villainy. The nu-emo quality of the song could potentially serve a mood of quiet eeriness, a quality which till now was arguably best achieved in the sinister SPECTRE-related cues of FRWL.

    I remain intrigued as to how Zimmer will work the action sequences, because it's there, I'd imagine, that he'll need to bring in something more, beyond the song's music.

    In terms of history, John Barry often - though not always - wrote material into main title tracks that he could then unpack ingeniously into action sequences.

    David Arnold wrote some exciting Barryesque action cues of his own, albeit dating them during the Brosnan years with unfortunate layers of techno 'gurgling' and 'farting' effects (as for the Thames boat chase in TWINE).

    Again during the Brosnan years, Arnold sometimes resorted to straightforwardly generic arrangements of The James Bond Theme (techno elements aside); Thomas Newman, later on, held closely to Arnold's work in the Bond theme department.

    For action music *other* than the Bond theme (always a real test), there's a risk that Hans Zimmer may do something too similar to Newman, whose score for the fight with Patrice in Shanghai, for example, or the car chase in Rome in SP, was, though serviceable, standard issue contemporary action music and 'samey' rather than (to my ears) in any way distinctively Bondian.

    There's always a fine line to draw in Bond music between the new and the traditional. As a Bond song 'No Time To Die' needed a little something more, imho, but overall I have faith in Zimmer to give us a decent score.

    Barry frequently used the main themes for romantic themes (FRWL, TB, DAF, TMWTGG, MR, OP, AVTAK) and used the Bond Theme and 007 for action. So Zimmer doesn’t have to use the main theme in action sequences. I think TMWTGG is the only time Barry used the main theme prominently for both action and romance. Some films like OP and AVTAK had dedicated action themes. Arnold often took this approach too.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • JTMJTM Posts: 3,027MI6 Agent
    bosoxfan wrote:
    I didn't see that this one has been posted, I'm not sure there is anything new in the footage but it looks to be the biggest accumulation of the various trailers with some Billie thrown in

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXEW9Bwmft0

    It’s just a fan-made video on an account made to look like Eilish’s official one. If we do get a proper video it won’t be a poorly put together mash up of clips from previously released trailers and Eilish’s other music videos. The fact that the same clips are repeated multiple times is a pretty good indication that it’s not legit. It did have me for a quick sec though.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited February 2020
    Matt S wrote:
    Barry frequently used the main themes for romantic themes (FRWL, TB, DAF, TMWTGG, MR, OP, AVTAK) and used the Bond Theme and 007 for action. So Zimmer doesn’t have to use the main theme in action sequences. I think TMWTGG is the only time Barry used the main theme prominently for both action and romance. Some films like OP and AVTAK had dedicated action themes. Arnold often took this approach too.

    Agreed that both composers wrote 'per film' dedicated action cues as well as using the Bond theme (and the '007' theme, in Barry's case). With my comment I was thinking of the following: the TLD theme is reworked for action at the air base ('Hercules Takes Off'); the 'Gold-finger' notes pepper the raid on Fort Knox; the opening bars of the TB theme dramatise Largo's underwater face-off with Bond; the TMWTGG theme is used during chases, as you note; the OHMSS theme is used for ski action; layers and phrases of music from the DAF song are ingeniously dispersed across DAF's score in numerous ways, including in some of the suspense and jeopardy cues (from 'Peter Franks' to 'Following The Diamonds' to 'Bond Smells A Rat' to 'Slumber Inc.' to 'Bond Meets Bambi and Thumper'). (If we were to count secondary or unused songs, 'Where Has Everybody Gone?' supplies 'Necros Attacks' and 'Inflight Fight' in LTD while 'Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' supplies some of the action at Club Kiss Kiss in TB.) Beyond the romance arrangements of main themes, it was often the less obvious rather than the prominent inclusion of main theme elements which helped gel the classic movies' scores and support their overall sense of cohesion.
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Shady Tree wrote:
    Matt S wrote:
    Barry frequently used the main themes for romantic themes (FRWL, TB, DAF, TMWTGG, MR, OP, AVTAK) and used the Bond Theme and 007 for action. So Zimmer doesn’t have to use the main theme in action sequences. I think TMWTGG is the only time Barry used the main theme prominently for both action and romance. Some films like OP and AVTAK had dedicated action themes. Arnold often took this approach too.

    Agreed that both composers used per-film dedicated action cues as well as the Bond theme (and the '007' theme, in Barry's case). With my comment I was thinking of the following: the TLD theme is reworked for action at the air base ('Hercules Takes Off'); the 'Gold-finger' notes pepper the raid on Fort Knox; the opening bars of the TB theme underscore Largo's underwater face-off with Bond; the TMWTGG theme is used during chases, as you note; the OHMSS theme is used for ski action; layers and phrases of music from the DAF song are ingeniously dispersed across DAF's score in numerous ways, including in some of the suspense and jeopardy cues (from 'Following The Diamonds' to 'Bond Smells A Rat' to 'Slumber Inc.' to 'Bond Meets Bambi and Thumper'). (If we were to count secondary or unused songs, 'Where Has Everybody Gone?' supplies 'Necros Attacks' and 'Inflight Fight' while 'Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' supplies some of the action at Club Kiss Kiss in TB.) Beyond the romance arrangements of main themes, it was often the less obvious rather than the prominent inclusion of main theme elements which helped gel the classic movies' scores and support their overall sense of cohesion.

    Barry wrote multi-layered themes that had much to pull from to use in the scores. Barry was also a fantastic composer who understood how to develop his themes in different ways. The NTTD theme doesn't have enough layers to be able to use in so many different ways. And developing music isn't Zimmer's skill set.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • JL DucroisetJL Ducroiset FrancePosts: 1MI6 Agent
    Hey everyone, what do you think about this vocal and multi instrumental cover of the OST?
    https://youtu.be/qWiWMNuiSPs
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    Just listened to it, and I have to say I don't dislike it however it hasn't gripped me either. Best part of the song are the couple of guitar twangs by Johnny Marr. However hats off to EON, they had their first number1 last time out and I'm sure they will have another number one hit with this again.

    I just hope the film isn't washed in piss like last time.

    Its Dull squared and I like her!
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited February 2020
    Thanks for sharing, JL Ducroiset. Nice piano and guitar performance :-) For me it's too early to hear anyone other than Billie singing this song in her style, and I'm not sure how readily that style transfers to a male vocalist with a Bond-ish image, but it's an interesting early cover :-)
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
Sign In or Register to comment.