Perhaps I’m just in a contrarian mood today but I’ve been listening to the song here and there during the day and I really like it. The lyrics are great, the mix of music is energetic…I’m not really sure why people are hating this so much. True, it’s not the smooth, unchallenging, easy listening music that serves as title music for many films, but I think it fits the new Bond perfectly; some rough edges, a discordant note, a youthful, aggressive, untempered approach to his work. I’m just glad that Amy Winehouse had to back out; I was expecting something totally mediocre from her.
It’s half-assed wannabe rap. Totally kewl, X-Treme, and the hook sounds like it should be the background music for a trailer for some generic, shitty action movie.
You know, perhaps that’s what I like about it. A friend mentioned to me that the thing about my music tastes is that I don’t really care for much that is “easy” to listen to; I’ll listen to Neko Case but not popular “country” music; I prefer bebop to “cool” jazz (though I think Dave Brubeck is a wizard and Miles Davis is awesome in any format); I’d rather listen to trashy punk than refined Eurotrash New Wave, The Police rather than Sting, et cetera. The strident, discordant, almost atonal rhythm of the piece is appealing and curiously appropriate to a Bond characterization who is less the slickster lounge lizard than a aggressive, vengeful, nearly ruthless blunt instrument of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Because what would really complement a Bond film is a song in which Apple whines out her neuroses? (Don’t get me wrong, I like Fiona Apple, but she’s almost the last singer I’d select to do a Bond theme.)
I wouldn’t characterize much of her work as whiny, especially not Extraordinary Machine or When The Pawn… - she really belts it out on those albums, (favorite song - A Better Version Of Me) with a lot of crashing piano chords and dramatic orchestral dissonance. Intense, I think, but not really neurotic or whiny music. And she can sound extremely seductive or extremely intimidating.
