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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Tomorrow Never Dies (David Arnold)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek arguably the best score in the history of the
James Bond franchise, with a superior mix of jazzy 1960's throwback
nostalgia and hard-nosed, techno-thrilling style.
Avoid it... on all albums prior to the outstanding 2022 set if you demand a fair and comprehensive presentation of music from the film.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Tomorrow Never Dies: (David Arnold) If one thing is
certain about Pierce Brosnan's tenure as British agent James Bond, it's
the superiority of Tomorrow Never Dies. Everything clicked in
this, the second of his films as 007. His performance reached back to
the confidence of Sean Connery, the love interest came packaged as
Michelle Yeoh (who is more Bond's equal than just another conquest), a
previous flame's death provokes a malice in Bond loyal to the books'
original intent, the villain is charmingly enthusiastic and has a cool
new stealth weapon as a toy, and David Arnold's score combined the best
of the John Barry years with the younger composer's techno-saavy
sensibilities. While Goldeneye had revived the series by becoming
the first $100 million grossing Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies
was far better packaged and a drew greater response from hardcore fans
of the franchise's classics. With John Barry now out of the picture
(despite his seeming renewed interest in scoring another Bond film
during the Brosnan years), Arnold was a perfect successor. His love of
the franchise and knack for imitating the expansive style of Barry in
his early scores, not to mention his British heritage and a friendship
he had cultivated with Barry, made him the logical choice. He had also
recorded covers of Bond songs for an album that attracted the attention
of the franchise's producers. And fans weren't disappointed. The score
than Arnold assembled for Tomorrow Never Dies is a sophisticated
and intelligent tribute to the classic Barry scores while pushing the
envelope with synthetic rhythms and drum pads to aid the traditional
orchestra in joining Bond in a rapidly evolving technological age. The
trademark action style that Arnold established in Stargate and
Independence Day is combined with a distinct return to the
flamboyant style of the jazzy Bond scores of the 1960's, and with the
presence of the synthetic elements native to Arnold's roots in the rock
genre, every variety of Arnold fan had something to like.
Arnold become the franchise's regular musical voice through the Brosnan and early Daniel Craig entries, allowing the stint with Bond to really define his career alongside a few notable scores for non-Bond films mixed in between. He continued pushing the synthetic side of his music for the franchise until a somewhat dissatisfying score for Die Another Day, the composer pulling back to the better balance of tradition and electronics in the superior Casino Royale. He was obviously keenly aware that the Bond franchise's scores had their own unique formula while Barry was in the lead, and that sound would return here at the request of filmmakers who hadn't been entirely satisfied with the direction Eric Serra had taken with Goldeneye. There are times when Arnold's percussion, electronic loops, and manipulation are excessive, but these moments are restricted to just a few action cues that are somewhat overwhelmed by sound effects in the film anyway. The franchise theme by Monty Norman is quoted liberally in Tomorrow Never Dies, with its incorporation ranging from full-blown three-minute tributes to clever counterpoint against the new themes for the film. Arnold's full expressions of the Norman theme are extremely astute in an instrumental sense. Even the opening fifteen seconds of the score offers brass and cymbal accents true to Barry's introductions. The muted trumpets, solo flute, and electric guitar performances in "Company Car" provide the most entertainingly true and modern performance of the Norman concept available during the Brosnan era. This three-minute cue established a standard at the time by which fans and students of the franchise could worship and study. Acoustically, the recording is largely flawless when not dominated by synthetic layering. Aside from the statements of Norman's theme throughout the score, Arnold wrote one of the franchise's best title songs and integrated its theme extremely well throughout the entire score. With all the wailing brass flair of Goldfinger, his main theme is both seductively alluring and strikingly defiant, an easily memorable aspect of the film. The main theme for Tomorrow Never Dies is incorporated nearly everywhere in the score, itself reduced to counterpoint duties at times for quick references. In the opening action sequence of "White Knight" before the opening credits, Arnold introduces the theme with nobility at 7:10 in between ample development of Norman's theme. This theme punctuates many of the action sequences with traditional action style but informs other purposes, too. It's afforded an Eastern personality in "Kowloon Bay," for instance, before a romantically monumental statement for strings and bold brass counterpoint at the resolution of the film. Arnold masterfully alternates between the primary and secondary sequences of the song's constructs in his references, helping galvanize the theme's entirety as the score's identity. A theme for Teri Hatcher's role as the villain's wife and former Bond lover is provided in only one extended sequence encompassing several cues in Tomorrow Never Dies. As they reunite, Arnold allows the Barry-like idea to flourish with the full ensemble (once again in layered strings under brass counterpoint) before a solo woodwind echoes to accompany her demise. A deliberate, pounding motif for the villain, Elliot Carver, and his stealth ship is sparsely utilized throughout the score, its initial appearance impossible to miss at 3:55 into "The Sinking of the Devonshire." The idea receives some intriguing, less obvious exploration in "Underwater Discovery" and becomes intertwined with the action at the climax. If the themes for Tomorrow Never Dies have a weakness, it's in the largely unfocused musical representation for Carver, as well as other villain elements such as in "Doctor Kaufman." To counter the theme for Carver's wife earlier in the film, Arnold writes one for Michelle Yeoh's agent and the Eastern locations of the story. It receives only brief treatments, but it is quite gorgeous on solo guitar and piano in the early portions of "Bike Shop Fight" and "Kowloon Bay." A full rendition in the latter cue, merging with the title theme, is a highlight of the score. Faint hints of this idea come through in the very last minute of the score, though this progression seems to be a nod to Barry's You Only Live Twice as well. Another important aspect of the music for Tomorrow Never Dies is its many references to previous scores in the franchise. In the opening battle, Arnold states a fragment of From Russia With Love. The following cue offers brass wails identical to later action sequences in Goldfinger. In both "White Knight," more obviously at 0:45 into "Hamburg Break In," and in a few other cues, he quotes the five-note bass sequence that defined the start of Tina Turner's song for Goldeneye, arguably the most memorable element from the soundtrack of that film. The upbeat militaristic material in "Okinawa/HALO Jump" harkens back to times when nothing could go wrong for Bond when naval or air force elements came into play, sometimes humorously. He did not make the same number of references in his scores for the subsequent Brosnan Bond films, though he does make a clever allusion to the title theme for Tomorrow Never Dies during a conversational cue after Bond's early rescue in Die Another Day. Narratively, this score succeeds brilliantly, applying tone-perfect attitude through most of the work. The conclusive "All in a Day's Work" is a monumental release that pulls back aspects of "White Knight" before its epically romantic final two minutes. In retrospect, Tomorrow Never Dies is a much better score than many gave it credit for being at the time of its release. Some listeners were turned off by the extensive synthetics and percussion used in "Back Seat Driver" and "Hamburg Break Out," among a few others, and these cues are indeed less effective outside the context of the film, where they come in conflict with the better balance of the surrounding material. But the varied, slapping percussion of "Bike Chase" is a perfect combination of both worlds, and its highly effective sound set the stage for the highlights of The World is Not Enough and the opening chase sequence in Casino Royale. For the most part, the balance of mixing in Tomorrow Never Dies is outstanding, and the gorgeous piano solos in several cues are testimony to this clarity. The horn performances late in "Station Break" are particularly splendid. Subsequent Arnold scores tended to get muddy in their rowdy action passages, especially in Die Another Day, the nuances not quite a compelling in their layering. As anyone can expect, not everything with Tomorrow Never Dies went well. First and foremost, the song situation was ultimately very dissatisfying for both Arnold and Bond fans alike. While the recording of Arnold's title song by k.d. lang matched the style and melody of the score with incredible cohesion and effectiveness, the producers of the film moved it to the end credits and instead saw fit to hire a bigger name to provide a replacement song for the traditional opening credits sequence. This move was unfortunate not only because Arnold's song was superior and better espoused the spirit of the franchise, but also because of lang's adeptly sultry voice and spirited performance. The replacement song is performed by Sheryl Crow, whose popularity at the time was seen as an asset but whose beach-bum voice and lazy performance was a disgrace to the film. The initial video game score for Tomorrow Never Dies heavily favored the use of Arnold's song theme, retitled "Surrender," over the presence of Crow's song. With critics, fans, and producers all easily recognizing the superiority of the lang song, Arnold was rewarded with the opportunity to write his own song for The World is Not Enough two years later before suffering from extraordinary frustration trying to adapt Madonna's non-thematic song into the score for Die Another Day. A more minor criticism of Tomorrow Never Dies responds to the fact that Arnold only used his trademark, beautiful choir for a short snippet of "The Sinking of the Devonshire," though given that this cue sounds awkward in its sudden shift to Stargate mannerisms during the slow-motion sinking and death sequence, that's not necessarily a negative. (This cue was later revealed to be a replacement for a less melodramatic alternative.) A truly major problem with Tomorrow Never Dies, however, was its initial album release. Much to the angst of Arnold, a hectic and disorganized post-production schedule for the film caused the music to be recorded chronologically in small portions over a matter of many months. As a result, the original 1997 album release by A&M Records could only feature the score material that had been mixed and mastered from the first half of the film. The album's material had to be prepared and approved before much of the score had been recorded. As a result of the recording and album scheduling mishap, the 1997 album for Tomorrow Never Dies is missing every cue from the entire last 40 minutes of the score, including all of the Eastern-flavored cues and the pivotal "Bike Chase" and "All in a Day's Work." These omissions, which didn't make sense to consumers at the time, combined with the replacement of lang's song from the opening credits, caused Bond fans to go stir crazy immediately. After much fuss and delay, controversy and discussion, some of the remaining music from the film was finally made available on a commercial album from Chapter III Records in 2000 along with a concurrent release of Tommy Tallarico's score for the Tomorrow Never Dies video game. At the time, The World is Not Enough was failing to muster the same approval as its predecessor, and the latter film's release date forced Chapter III to hold back the expanded version of Tomorrow Never Dies by several weeks. Despite providing 26 minutes of score not available on the previous album, the Chapter III product does have its share of flaws. The label's quick bankruptcy thereafter caused the album to go out of print fast. Although the packaging and press kit advertised it as being "complete," it's actually missing many important moments, including "Station Break," the four-minute cue that plays as Bond takes Elliot Carver off the air and Arnold provides a darkly dramatic performance of the love theme that foreshadows an uncertain future for the Paris character. Ironically, this cue appeared in full on the 1997 album. Additionally, several impactful passages from the first and final twenty minutes remained missing, including the music between "White Knight" and the opening song ("Backseat Pilot"). Another major drawback to the expanded album is the lack of any of the songs appearing on the original album due to licensing reasons. The eleven-minute interview with Arnold at the end of the 2000 product is interesting; the questions are intelligent and the interview is mixed nicely with some of the composer's cues. But it's not something you'll find yourself listening to a second time. A better album could have resulted if the interview were dumped in favor of "Station Break" and "Surrender," but failing that, fans of the film and franchise were forced to own both products. The sound quality on both albums is equally vibrant. For more than twenty years, hardcore fans of Tomorrow Never Dies turned to 2-CD bootlegs that were mostly complete, featuring the isolated DVD score, the two songs, and bonus material totaling over 140 minutes in length. Finally, in 2022, the La-La Land Records label released a 5,000-copy set containing the entirety of score, source music, and songs in a spectacular presentation that misses only a Moby remix from the 1997 album. The songs and score are afforded their longer film versions in the proper chronological order, and more than half an hour of alternate score tracks are tacked onto the end. Some of these alternates were the previously released album cuts, though the first three cues in the score are provided their original forms as part of Arnold's fascinating demo process with a full ensemble. The newly released cues on the 2022 set include the rest of the Norman theme references early in the film, starting with the exciting "Backseat Pilot" (and intriguing demo variant) bracketed by prominent placements of the franchise identity. In "MI6/Launch the Fleet," Arnold unleashes the electric guitar and flute in traditional performances of the Norman theme as well. A longer version of "Company Car" extends the flute passages. Elegant suspense toys with the main theme in "You Have a Phone Call, Mr. Bond" while "Carver and Paris" does the same with the villain material. The duo of "Printing Press Fight" and "Escape to Hotel" is overdue for inclusion, the former included in two variants and the latter slathering on the Norman material in "Company Car" glory. The film version of "Backseat Driver" dials back some of the obnoxious electronic distortion in its second half, and "Okinawa/HALO Jump" is a cheery, militaristic take on the Norman theme, its snare-ripping tone taken to serious shades in" Grenade," which also features keen allusions to the Paris theme in its midsection. Meanwhile, "Banner Escape" is akin to "Bike Chase" in style, and the duo of "Stealth Shoot Out" and "Carver Gets It" complete the climax's propulsive blend of Norman theme and Carver's material, the latter cue offering up a muscular version of the "Goldeneye" song motif at 1:07. Topping off the album is a version of "Surrender" with a softer, dreamy opening that may have segued fairly well if it overlapped directly with the last part of "All in a Day's Work" as one continuous piece. The immensely satisfying 2022 set is, in totality, a magnificent treatment for arguably the finest Bond score to ever exist, one that at the very least remains triumphant as the definitive Arnold entry in the Bond franchise.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1997 A&M Album:
Total Time: 50:12
2000 Chapter III Album: Total Time: 75:44
* previously unreleased track 2022 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 146:28
* previously unreleased ** contains previously unreleased music
NOTES & QUOTES:
The 1997 and 2000 albums' inserts contain extensive credits but no extra
information about the score or film. That of the 2022 La-La Land set contains
extensive notation about both. On the 1997 album, original quotes by Pierce Brosnan
and Sean Connery are heard in the song by Moby. Connery's quote comes from
Goldfinger.
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1997-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Tomorrow Never Dies are Copyright © 1997, 2000, 2022, A&M Records, Chapter III Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/25/97 and last updated 3/13/23. |
