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•	1995 Album

•	2003 Album

•	1995 Album

When Goldeneye opened in the theatres, Serra's score thrilled his fans, and even sold well to a younger listening audience in record stores. Tina Turner, whose voice is sultry enough to carry the vocal sound of the franchise well, performed the title song that would circulate with moderate success around the radio stations of America. To the mass of long-time Bond fans, however, Serra's score was not only a failure in the film, but a disgrace to the Bond tradition as a whole. Veteran viewers pounded Serra instantaneously, with some going so far as to claim his score ruined the film. Demands for the whereabouts of John Barry poured in to film music publications. The move towards the musical modernization of the series had indeed been accomplished, but Serra failed completely in his attempt to tie Goldeneye to the franchise's past. Many industry insiders, including those at M-G-M (a studio renown for its poor choice of composer assignments), scratched their heads and were willing to give Serra the benefit of the doubt. When David Arnold took over the series with Tomorrow Never Dies, the young Brit proved that Serra's score was indeed not only inadequate, but a disgrace to the series. While Arnold himself has claimed that he didn't find the music for Goldeneye to be offensive at all, the score still became the subject of mockery in parts of Hollywood. Fans of Serra's music will argue that public perception and expectations shouldn't be the measure of the score for Goldeneye. To an extent, some creative liberty must be allowed, yes. But expectations in a film franchise of this multitude and cross-generational popularity simply must be respected, and Serra unequivocally failed to show that. The score is amateurish in addition to being disrespectful. Serra's techno rhythms are simplistic and uninteresting, forcing more of the excitement to be generated solely by the action on the screen (which is something that the film marginally succeeded in accomplishing). The composer's choice of synthesized samplings came under extreme and warranted criticism. The low-toned belching sound effect used to musically represent the ugly aliens in The Fifth Element is employed here as a token representation of the Russians. At first, it was thought to be a joke, but similarly ridiculous sounds unfortunately permeate Goldeneye.

The use of the Bond theme is disgracefully minimal, with only two cues in the film making a futile attempt at its incorporation. The opening climbing scene and infamous tank chase through St. Petersburg required full statements of Monty Norman's theme, if even for a few short bursts, but Serra trashes the theme with a corny and faint electronic blast of the first few notes of its progression. The glorious tank scene, especially, was a badly missed opportunity for Serra, whose (eventually unused) cue for the scene locked his score forever in the category of disastrous misadventures. Other action scenes also contain underscore suitable for the Goldeneye video game and not the feature film. Serra makes a futile attempt to incorporate his usual London Session Studio Orchestra into the score to perform the tender moments for Bond. In the film, they make four notable appearances, but are hindered by their usual lack of inspiration and power, along with a tepid love theme attempted by Serra. The love themes in the Bond films are traditionally swoop in an almost overly dramatic movement, and are part of the Bond formula no matter how you cut it. From Russia With Love established the power of the Bond love theme, and Barry continued it to his final score. Serra also fails to quote the theme of the Goldeneye theme song by Turner in his score, which is another unacceptable blunder. When people think of the Goldeneye score in years later, it is the four-note bass plucking from the beginning of the song that is ironically best remembered. Even David Arnold, who has proven himself a master at interpreting themes for a sequel, paid tribute to this four note motif from the Goldeneye song in the first half of Tomorrow Never Dies. The fact that Arnold found nothing worth referencing in Serra's score for Goldeneye should not be neglected. After Arnold led the Bond franchise into the 21st Century with a classy and elegant combination of big jazz, Moby-inspired electronics, exotic instrumentation, and sweeping orchestral love themes, Serra's Bond score seems even more like a fish out of water. Some will continue to argue to the very end that Serra simply produced the score he was asked to write. But too many of the unwritten rules of Bond franchise scores were violated by his effort (or lack thereof), so history will be forever unkind to Eric Serra for his vastly inappropriate contribution. The contents of the 1995 Virgin and 2003 Capitol/EMI albums are the same (though the latter re-mixed the percussion as part of its remastering), and if you value any of the traditions of James Bond music from its prime, avoid the frustration of either album at all costs.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download