FIRST LIGHT by Lana Del Ray and David Arnold
emtiem
SurreyPosts: 6,817MI6 Agent
Here's our first full Bond theme in six years (if you don't count Jorja Smith's Price Of It All a couple of weeks ago!)
Comments
Apologies for the double post, the website suffered a Cloudflare problem as I posted.
No biggie--I deleted the double.
Little quote from Arnold himself about the song here:
And the title sequence will be revealed tomorrow at 8pm at the BAFTAs, by the looks of it.
Not bad at all. Better than some of the film theme songs (@Sir Miles knows at least one of the songs I mean).
Hmm, I'm not so sure. Arnold calls back to various aspects of his 90s Bond style, and Lana Del Rey offers Adele-mode 'indie' vocals a la SF, but the track overall doesn't notably break beyond an 'it's-only-for-a-video-game' scale of achievement. I like the rat-a-tat brass and end-note Bond chord. Despite feeling somewhat underwhelmed, I still hope Arnold is engaged to do the next Bond movie. I really liked his work on CR06 and QOS. Is 'First Light' his 'calling card' #2 ('Shaken and Stirred' having been the first, all those years ago)?
Arnold for the next movie, definitely. If they're bringing back anyone (on the production side) let it be him.
Here's the title sequence, which is nicely Bond:
Certainly has little bits taken from previous title sequences…
And I thought you liked Goldfinger 😬
I've listened to the track a few times now, but am struggling to remember it. Doesn't have much of a 'hook' to it for my ears.
I absolutely love it and think its perfect for a video game. Lyrics reflect that if a bit heavy handed. The sound isn't really right for a movie IMHO but it doesn't have to be.
This song has opened the old wound of Lana Del Rey being passed up for Sam Smith, this was a huge dissapointment for me at the time and 'Writings on the Wall' is possibly my least favourite song of the film canon. Her brand is so in line with Bond, I hope she does the next movie song.
It's an OK song helped greatly with the actual visuals of the 'credits sequence'.
Honestly, I might go ahead and add this song to my Bond theme playlist. It's certainly better than a third of the canon songs.
Yes, the theme works well with the title sequence, better than as a standalone track imho. I've also found a place for the track in my mega Bond playlist.
It's encouraging to see so much aesthetic continuity in the title sequence with the design of recent Bond film credit sequences; hopefully, a continuity ticket, as far as style and music are concerned, will inform the next film too.
But maybe someone should have pointed out that many Brits are going to associate the image of a falling/ shattering chandelier with an iconic moment in the sitcom, 'Only Fools And Horses'. From Peckham with love...
This. (And then permissions should be secured to use 'No Good About Goodbye' as the end titles track...)
It’s got some bare ladies dancing in silhouette I guess but there’s quite a few which do that. Bond having multiple shadows is a bit like Skyfall maybe but I can’t spot much else.
Really? There's loads more in there…but if you can’t see it, then you can’t see it…🤷🏻♂️
You could always give examples to make it a more convincing point I guess. If not I suppose I’ll just disregard it.
I suppose if I squint, the Minority Report touchscreen identikit of Bond is vaguely reminiscent of the ‘007 confirmed’ bit from CR, but it’s not very similar at all. Ending the sequence on Bond purposefully walking towards the camera whilst the song crescendos is similar to how CR’s sequence ends, but again not really direct lift. There’s reference to the Bond dots in a sort of 3D sense, but those pop up in every film of course. But there’s plenty which is original, and I don’t find any of those similarities particularly shocking: the three shadows is probably the closest to a direct lift. It is a game trying to link in to the movies, so it’s more natural for it to try and evoke them: hence the song perhaps not exactly taking us to new musical territory for the series.
Don't like it. Sorry. Standard dirge of romantic possibilities without urgency or even rhythm unless you like repetitive drum beats. Rather dull, I thought. Title sequence, ditto.
Total win for me
I can see where you’re coming from to an extent, part of me thinks it doesn’t quite go anywhere. But I’d say that a repetitive drum beat is kind of the definition of a rhythm! 😅
😂 @emtiem probably a dodgy bit of phrasing there, like the dodgy drum beat !
Squint harder. Or don’t. I don’t want you being shocked 🙄🤣
That was crap!!
The music itself is nicely done it reminds me of both Arnold's tracks for TND and TWINE. It works. Lovely classic orchestrals.
The title sequence is nicely done, though Bond himself looks a bit like a young Ewan McGreggor as James Bond Jnr! Odd. The Chandelier drop works, as its not the same aesthetics as the OFAH version. Lots of elements reprised from the Brosnan and Craig era films.
Woah... First time I have typed thr Craig era in the past tense...
The lyrics though are, underwhelming. Moth to a flame? Bond is not predictable. Never has been. There is no energy or zest to the singing? I half expected her to yawn the final reprise of the chorus. Boring! Damnrd shame.