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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
As a die-hard fan of James Bond music who always tunes into those "15 Days of 007" Bond marathons on TNT while I work on household projects, I take these albums very seriously... They're almost like a religious experience for me. That said, I strongly believe that the only listenable James Bond scores since 1962 have been composed by John Barry and David Arnold, and I therefore pay extra attention to the Barry tracks on this compilation (and let's also hope that Silva eventually takes a shot at recording the Arnold scores). The best person for the job of arranging, orchestrating, and conducting these Barry tracks is Nic Raine, whose expertise from working on a few of the Bond films with Barry qualifies him beyond all others. His mastery of Barry's style makes those performances of the City of Prague Philharmonic he conducts to be the best we'll probably ever hear. The album begins with a Barry score that most people have forgotten about, perhaps because the film was so bad. The three suites from The Man with the Golden Gun are an interesting study, held back by one of the more awkward Bond themes, but exhibiting some of the more interesting ethnically charged Bond music on the album. As far as The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only are concerned, the biggest challenge was finding a way to orchestrate and perform snippets of these Hamlisch and Conti scores in a fashion that didn't conflict with the mass of Barry music. Thankfully, Raine and producer Fitzpatrick chose excellent pieces to include on the album. The The Spy Who Loved Me tracks are lightweights, but refrain from the overheard song theme. The opposite approach is taken with For Your Eyes Only, for which the title theme "instrumental" is performed. That title theme for For Your Eyes Only could have been the best James Bond theme written, if Conti hadn't been the one to write and arrange it. Nevertheless, the album's selling point are the unreleased Barry tracks. Along with a few good, previously unreleased tracks from The Man with the Golden Gun are two refreshing new minutes from Moonraker. One of the most overlooked Bond scores, Moonraker is a gorgeous Barry score which has melodies that would later be developed in High Road to China and Out of Africa. While only a short performance of the elegant title theme is provided, the entire, six minute space flight sequence is performed with awesome power and that silly 70's female choir. Wise choices are also made with Octopussy, as a medley of its very best moments amount to over seven minutes on this album. The title theme from Octopussy is played in full, followed by some of the better action cues from the 80's Bond films. Raine particularly captures the bass from "The Palace Fight" accurately, and leaves the traditional Bond theme at the end of the track for good measure. Another great asset of this album is the five-minute suite from A View to a Kill. Along with the haunting title theme performed by horn and flute and the pulsating chase music (which was one of the most tasteful uses of an electric-guitar ever in motion picture), the long-awaited fanfare cue is finally recorded for a commercial album. The heroic and powerful statement of the title theme can be heard at the beginning of the film and during the ladder/fire sequence, and it is a very, very welcome addition to any Bond music collection. My favorite of the Barry/Bond scores is The Living Daylights, and a significant amount of music from that score appears here. Unfortunately, this is the only section where the City of Prague Philharmonic stumbles. During the "Hercules Take Off" and "Necros Attacks" tracks (the action/orchestral renditions of two of the film's songs), the electronic bass is very well performed (good job, Mark Ayres) but the brass have no style or rhythm, hesitating on every note and restraining the hip energy of those tracks. To cap off my disappointment with the section from The Living Daylights, the end title performance has four instances of incorrect notes. At first, I thought that the interlude was simply misplayed by the musicians, but with the same sequence missed four times in succession, I can only imagine that that one note wasn't translated correctly (which would seem odd, since Raine has such close knowledge of Barry's originals). It's a hard mistake to ignore. In any case, the flubs in The Living Daylights might go unnoticed to those who are only casual fans of Bond themes, but it is a flagrant, unsettling violation for the more serious fans of that score. The final track on the album is almost not worth mentioning, because it represents a dark chapter in the history of Bond music. Even Live and Let Die is more tolerable than Eric Serra's GoldenEye, and I am scratching my head as to why six minutes from GoldenEye are on this album. Even orchestrated and rearranged by master Raine and performed by a considerable number of musicians, the music is simply beyond redemption. Its uncoordinated, uninteresting nature was simply too aweful for Raine and his musicians to possibly save, and I kiddingly wonder if it was included on the compilation simply to elevate the stature of Barry's work... In the end, however, this is a better compilation than the first installment, with great, newly-recorded tracks from Moonraker and A View to a Kill combined with strong performances of Octopussy and The Man with the Golden Gun, making this an impressive album well worth your money. ****
* Previously unreleased
Insert notes contain extensive notes about each of the tracks, as well as thorough credits. The track titles are in ALL CAPITALS and are difficult to read on the packaging. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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