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Buy it... if you appreciate and embrace the harsher technological edge that David Arnold progressively gave the scores for each of the Pierce Brosnan entries in the James Bond franchise. Avoid it... if you expect this score to offer the same impressively balanced blend of symphonic force and electronica rhythms that made the Tomorrow Never Dies score a classic in the franchise. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The World is Not Enough: (David Arnold) With The World is Not Enough, the 19th entry in the famed 007 franchise, Pierce Brosnan was comfortably installed as James Bond and the tone of the resurrected series was firmly set in a new technological age. This Bond story differed most significantly from its predecessors because of its greater integration of Bond's superior, 'M' (Judi Dench), into the field of action, as well as the ramifications of her relationship with an heiress brainwashed into helping the villains of the day. Sophie Marceau's classy presence countered an otherwise ridiculous Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist, and, at the end of the day, the film was undemanding and quite entertaining. As usual, a handful of outstanding action sequences defined a Bond film, and these lengthy scenes are also the dominant factor in David Arnold's music for the film. The young British electronica and orchestra blender had fallen into the perfect venue in which to merge the two distinct halves of his talents. His experience on Tomorrow Never Dies wasn't entirely smooth, with his song replaced and a post-production schedule that prevented a well-rounded album release. Still, his music for the film is generally considered to be extremely strong, the pinnacle of his achievements throughout the years of Brosnan as 007. The mixture of his electronica rhythms and sound effects was well matched with the jazzy tradition of John Barry and the ethnic and orchestral elements in Tomorrow Never Dies, and his song, "Surrender," was both brilliantly written and performed. Arnold sought to continue the twist of old and new for The World is Not Enough, but given the even higher level of technical sophistication exhibited in the plot, the composer weighted the electronic elements more heavily this time around. This emphasis on his newly trademarked sound of drum loops and excessive metallic effects for the franchise is typically considered the defining characteristic of the work. Along with the shift towards the electronica elements, Arnold's music for The World is Not Enough also differed in that it utilized the theme of the title song to a great degree in the score. Arnold wrote the melody for the song "The World is Not Enough," and his subsequent reliance on especially the three-note fragment containing the lyrics "not enough" is a very satisfying technique of cohesion. Unlike Tomorrow Never Dies, in which the title song eventually had nothing to do with the score, and Die Another Day, which, as Arnold lamented, offered an atrocious Madonna song with no discernable melody to adapt, The World is Not Enough features an extremely strong bond between its song and score. Arnold's adaptations of the melody into his score are far more intelligent than John Barry's old habit of only restating full reprises of his entire themes in lengthy fashion. The fragments of the title theme here, as well as several supporting elements, are really the greatest strength of The World is Not Enough. The performance of the song by Shirley Manson of the American rock group Garbage is lacking in style. While the instrumentation and progression of the song are well tied to the Bond franchise, Manson's voice is sleazy rather than sultry, and thus the song comes across as too grungy to support the underlying melody. In these regards, it stumbles with the same lazy attitude as Sheryl Crow and exhibits none of the high class of either k.d. lang or Tina Turner's recent entries. The album release for The World is Not Enough also features the loungey jazz song "Only Myself to Blame," performed with retro style by Scott Walker over muted trumpets and a traditional jazz ensemble. This song doesn't make much sense in context, for it fails to appear in the film and really has no connection to even the casino music that Arnold wrote in his score. If the energy level of the song had been kicked up a few levels, perhaps memories of the song from From Russia With Love would be merited. As it is, however, this inclusion of a totally irrelevant song is disappointing. Aside from the melody of the title song in the score, Arnold also writes a longing, distant theme for the bittersweet Elektra King. This idea is explored by woodwinds and strings with delicate piano accompaniment in "M's Confession" and "Elektra's Theme: The Bedroom," with appropriately fleeting variants that die away in "Remember Pleasure." More appealing, though, is the straight love theme for Bond and Christmas (the American scientist), which opens with the three note "not enough" phrase from the title theme and then deviates into a beautiful theme of its own that owes some tone and style to the Paris love theme from the previous film. The only clear performance of this idea on album occupies the quiet "Christmas in Turkey" celebration cue, with two gorgeous piano renditions leading into an elegant closing statement of Monty Norman's original bass progression. Even more impressive is the fully orchestral performance of the theme in traditional, bloated, Barry fashion in the unreleased cue "Snow Business," which accompanies the breathtaking helicopter photography of the scene with bold, harmonious horns in all their glory. This one cue (which exposes the theme's substantial similarities to the "Safari" cue from Barry's Out of Africa) is among the few truly symphonic delights of the entire score. Two ideas seem to represent the villains of The World is Not Enough, and one of those is a recurring motif from Tomorrow Never Dies. While not readily obvious in his representation, the lead villain receives an elusive, descending motif in "Remembering Pleasure," though this idea eventually mingles with the Elektra theme (for good reason). Far more enjoyable is the return of a great villain motif in Tomorrow Never Dies that apparently was meant by Arnold to serve the general purpose of multiple Bond opponents. In The World is Not Enough, this idea is best heard over a twenty second stretch starting at about 4:45 into "Caviar Factory," which remains among the more vicious confrontations Bond has ever had with the usual array of abnormally-armed freaks. Unlike the other two scores in the opening trilogy of Arnold's work for the franchise, this one seems to have fewer clever references to other Bond scores on the whole, though. The remaining cues on the album vary in purpose between outrageous action, mundane conversational underscore, and a couple of ethnic accents. Arnold doesn't let the conversation cues run long without some reference to one of the score's themes, though none of them is a particular highlight. The ethnic material exists in pieces throughout the score, including the opening of "Caviar Factory," though it really shines in "Welcome to Baku." While "Welcome to Baku" runs under two minutes, it's definitely the highlight of album. For the setting change in the plot (and once again another overhead shot), this cue is a brilliant layering of both the traditional Bond rhythmic progression and the title theme of the film, rendered with a stunning blend of percussion, the usual brass, and Natascha Atlas' always-alluring voice. For a reason still unknown, the cue was stripped of Atlas' vocals when it appeared in the film, a definite blow to the sense of awe that the transition on screen attempts to stir. Likewise, the mix of the percussion and electronics in the action cues sometimes varies between film and album. As mentioned before, Arnold's emphasis on the techno elements in his action music for The World is Not Enough is really the score's downfall. One of the great appeals of Tomorrow Never Dies was the fact that Arnold only used his native electronica accents sparingly, leaving many of the early cues truly symphonic and, when the film really heats up, using the drum loops and slapping electronic percussion as an aid to the cue rather than its driving force. For The World is Not Enough, that equation is flipped, with the same drum loops and an even harsher collection of metallic percussion samples (or perhaps they're real; it's hard to tell) mixed at the forefront and drowning out the orchestra's already hyperactive level of activity. The orchestrations and pacing of many of these cues are so frantic that the potentially intriguing intelligence of the ensemble's melodic references are lost in the "wall of sound" approach with which Arnold mixed the final product. In some cases, this excessive mix of slapping sounds is uniquely appropriate. In the previous film, the "Bike Chase" cue had a chopping helicopter blade as a lethal weapon, and here, the "Caviar Factory" cue takes that menacing chopper mentality to another level. In this cue, Arnold's blatant slashing sound effects are understandable. In other cases, such as "Pipeline," the cue is overwhelmed by its abrasive rhythmic pounding and obnoxious loops. There are exceptions, of course. The "I Never Miss" cue is one such curious note; not only are the electronics absent from the cue, making it a close cousin to the first two cues from Tomorrow Never Dies, but its recording quality seems to offer the ensemble in a wetter, livelier mix. Also in need of discussion is the lengthy cue that accompanies the boat chase through London at the start of the film. Heard in "Come in 007, Your Time is Up," this cue is somewhat frustrating, because if not for the ridiculously distracting synthetic loops and sound effects, it would easily be among the best of Arnold's production for the franchise. From about 1:55 onward, this cue is a powerhouse combination of both the Monty Norman theme and the new title theme for the film. Even with its excessive percussion, it's still a largely enjoyable piece, though the equivalent of the gunbarrel statement at the start is a bit heavy on the electronics and Arnold's use of an echoing "wop-wop-wop" sound effect (most prominent at 3:15 in the cue) is annoying. Overall, The World is Not Enough could easily have been a 4-star score if Arnold hadn't tried so hard to beef up the electronica elements to obnoxious levels. His other Bond scores prove that there is a happy balance to be had, but he misses it here. This score remains, however, superior to Die Another Day. The album is incomplete and, unlike the other Arnold/Bond scores, the music has never been fully leaked in bootleg form. That unfortunately leaves unreleased the cues "Snow Business" and "Kazakhstan" (with all three major themes and some wicked bass work on Norman's theme in the latter), as well as the film's arrangement of the end credits. If re-mixed and including the three cues named above, an album for this score could be quite enjoyable. As is, the score and album are just... not enough. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 68:21
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