11 October 2012
The archetypal James Bond title song has Shirley Bassey, or her most available equivalent, bellowing along to the strains of a buttoned-up orchestra. However, sometimes the franchise dips its toe into the bubble-bath of contemporary chart sounds – with mixed results. Duran Duran’s hi-octane ‘A View To A Kill’ and Lulu’s brassy ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’ are both glorious fun. A-ha’s ‘The Living Daylights’ is fine ’80s synth-pop shot through with Scandi-noir bleakness, and Nancy Sinatra’s ‘You Only Live Twice’ is magnificent. Madonna’s ‘Die Another Day’, though, was horrible.
‘Skyfall’ tries to have it both ways: a contemporary pop superstar shoehorned into the template. No dance into the fire nor cheeky innuendo here, though; the song is a sombre thunderballad. While Adele’s innate dramatic delivery is notionally a good match for a movie theme, the murky verses and blustery chorus do her no favours. As befits the Christopher Nolan pretensions of this film and the misery porridge of Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond, ‘Skyfall’ is too self-consciously serious to be taken seriously. Still, it was only the second James Bond title song (after ‘Nobody Does It Better’ in 1977) to go to number one in Ireland and the first to win an Oscar. Stick that in your golden gun and smoke it!
