The Score of Skyfall

DoctorKaufmann

shadowonthesun said:

Samuel001 said:
According to the Quantum Of Solace end credits it was "written by David Arnold".

Oh, but "Crawl, End Crawl" is a decent track, so Arnold obviously didn't have anything to do with it. Or at least people will tell you, despite not having researched it.

I was about posting that, but Samuel001 then did it. It's funny that DA (with all his shortcomings - I quite liked his HOT FUZZ soundtrack) gets thrashed for the DAD song, although Madonna screwed it up beyond belief, same with Sheryl Crow's TND song (which was after all better than DAD, but then k-d- lang's "Surrender" would have been the better choice) and even for AWTD, whichw as written and produced by Mr White, Jack White. I liked "Surrender", "The World is not enough" and "You know my name, I did not like DAD and AWTD.
@DartDimi: You actually sum up my thoughts on Arnold's work.

shadowonthesun

When Arnold is good, he's on fire. I think he really came of age, as it were, with CASINO ROYALE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE. Before then, he was heavy-handed with the orchestral arrangements and over-used the Bond theme. CASINO ROYALE was a lot more subtle than his previous attempts, and QUANTUM OF SOLACE was quite experimental and very unique. I partiularly liked the silence right after the opening of "Time To Get Out" to allow for the Aston Martin's engine note rip through. It was almost as if he was using the car as an instrument; the DBS has a glorious engine note. I also quite liked "Inside Man", which is quite possibly the most unique track in the entire franchise (with the possible exception of Eric Serra's GODLENEYE score). I would not complain at all if "Inside Man" was reused in some way in the future; I could see it becoming Arnold's answer to John Barry's "007 Theme".

PanchitoPistoles

Arnold still doesn't know whether he'll score Bond 23 or not:

http://twitter.com/#!/DavidGArnold/status/131168040049049601

SJK91

PanchitoPistoles said:
Arnold still doesn't know whether he'll score Bond 23 or not:

http://twitter.com/#!/DavidGArnold/status/131168040049049601

Wow, they are really holding it back to the very last minute...Arnold might not know if he's doing the score until the press conference!!! Maybe even later? Poor Arnie... ;-)

JWESTBROOK

@shadowinthesun

Arnold really did something beautiful with Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
Much of QoS contained elements from CR to support the continuation of the two films.
Like you said, "Inside Man" is an excellent score I would love to see come back around. Its an excellent Bond theme. Even with "I Never Left" Vesper's theme from CR fades off and rolls into the James Bond Theme and the gun barrel, to show that Bond has moved on. Its really quite brilliant and beautiful. Another track from QoS, "Talamone" had the theme from Casino Royale in it, which I find to be "Craig's theme". It fits him and the movies perfectly. I'd like to see variations of that resurface as a recurring theme as well.

Lets hope this creativity continues if he gets the part for 23. I wonder, with the -somewhat- sudden change of style, if he was threatened with getting the boot and Eon was pressuring him to be more creative with these new installments, and that's why he hasn't been informed yet. They may have considered booting him at Casino Royale..

shadowonthesun

PanchitoPistoles said:
Arnold still doesn't know whether he'll score Bond 23 or not:

A lot of Arnold's availablity will depend on his commitments to the 2012 Olympics. EON won't really be able to make him an offer until such time as his scedule for the Games is known. And if forced to change between another Bond film and the Olympics, I think Arnold would choose the latter - because how often would he get to do that? He'd also be working with Danny Boyle, the creative director for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Of course, he could still do both.

DaltonCraig007

Dummo7 said:
o CR and QOS scores and becoming hooked. They have complexities that emerge through repeated listening.

Sorry, but CR is the most simple score, most devoid of any complexity of any Bond soundtracks. It's such a dull score, musically speaking. There's no complexity at all. It shows that Arnold has never had any classical training. Which is why he is seriously lacking in musical knowledge. It wasn't until QOS that we finally saw some complexity from Arnold... And he is close to 50, so maybe near the end of his life he'll be able to make score somewhat ressembling the musical greatness of John Barry. Sorry @Dummo7 but CR is a catastrophic score. Maybe nice to listen to, but it is a very, very poor soundtrack.

DarthBork

http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond_23_official_title_announcement.php3?s=bond23&id=02997

He's scoring.

Samuel001

DarthBork said:
http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond_23_official_title_announcement.php3?s=bond23&id=02997

He's scoring.

The '. Five-time 007 composer David Arnold will score James Bond's 23rd official on-screen adventure' text has been added to every Skyfall article but we're never had actual confirmation.

DaltonCraig007

Oh no. Why is the hack back for a 6th film ? I hope he can maintain the level of the QOS score, and not make an appalling mess like CR. Terrible news. I was hoping for a new composer. Appalling news.

Zekidk

Great news. I love his soundtracks, especially TND. After John Barry - he's the best composer.

nick_007

DaltonCraig007 said:
Oh no. Why is the hack back for a 6th film ? I hope he can maintain the level of the QOS score, and not make an appalling mess like CR. Terrible news. I was hoping for a new composer. Appalling news.

You say that his QOS score was his best (I agree) then surely it can't be that appalling, no? Aren't you curious to see if he can top it? I am!

DaltonCraig007

Zekidk said:
Great news. I love his soundtracks, especially TND. After John Barry - he's the best composer.

TND is a horrible score. How many times does he have to use the Bond theme ?

DaltonCraig007

nick_007 said:

DaltonCraig007 said:
Oh no. Why is the hack back for a 6th film ? I hope he can maintain the level of the QOS score, and not make an appalling mess like CR. Terrible news. I was hoping for a new composer. Appalling news.

You say that his QOS score was his best (I agree) then surely it can't be that appalling, no? Aren't you curious to see if he can top it? I am!

Appalling in the sense that I thought we'd have a new composer. But yes, I hope he can maintain his QOS level.

SirHenryLeeChaChing

DaltonCraig007 said:
Oh no. Why is the hack back for a 6th film ? I hope he can maintain the level of the QOS score, and not make an appalling mess like CR. Terrible news. I was hoping for a new composer. Appalling news.

:-))

Zekidk

DaltonCraig007 said:

Zekidk said:
Great news. I love his soundtracks, especially TND. After John Barry - he's the best composer.

TND is a horrible score.

Well, that's your opinion.

I love the soundtrack. It has so many wonderful tracks, 'White Knight', 'Paris and Bond', etc.

PanchitoPistoles

DarthBork said:
http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond_23_official_title_announcement.php3?s=bond23&id=02997

He's scoring.

Not true. He is bot confirmed yet. The line "Five-time 007 composer David Arnold will score James Bond's 23rd official on-screen adventure." was added by MI6-HQ along with other things at the end.

Here is the official press release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eon-productions-metro-goldwyn-mayer-studios-and-sony-pictures-entertainment-announce-7th-november-is-start-of-production-for-23rd-james-bond-film-skyfall-133144863.html

No mention of David Arnold.

DaltonCraig007 said:
Oh no. Why is the hack back for a 6th film ? I hope he can maintain the level of the QOS score, and not make an appalling mess like CR. Terrible news. I was hoping for a new composer. Appalling news.

Calm down. He's not confirmed yet.

DaltonCraig007

Zekidk said:

DaltonCraig007 said:

Zekidk said:
Great news. I love his soundtracks, especially TND. After John Barry - he's the best composer.

TND is a horrible score.

Well, that's your opinion.

I love the soundtrack. It has so many wonderful tracks, 'White Knight', 'Paris and Bond', etc.

TND's score is basicly the Bond theme over and over again.

SJK91

DaltonCraig007 said:

Zekidk said:

DaltonCraig007 said:

Zekidk said:
Great news. I love his soundtracks, especially TND. After John Barry - he's the best composer.

TND is a horrible score.

Well, that's your opinion.

I love the soundtrack. It has so many wonderful tracks, 'White Knight', 'Paris and Bond', etc.

TND's score is basicly the Bond theme over and over again.

I'll agree that TND had a little bit too much Bond theme. There were some good tracks, though...

And as far as Arnold is concerned: he showed some improvement with his QOS score; there were more listenable tracks than usual. I am just praying that he will continue to improve and his Skyfall (or is it SkyFall?) score will be his best yet. (For some of us here, that may not be much...but I've never minded Arnold too much)

All that said, the official EON press release does not mention his name...maybe he isn't doing the score after all? I wonder why they are so reluctant to give that info. There is no doubt Mendes and the gang have been looking for a possible replacement. Arnold might just be the fall back, though.

Zekidk

DaltonCraig007 said:

Zekidk said:

DaltonCraig007 said:

Zekidk said:
Great news. I love his soundtracks, especially TND. After John Barry - he's the best composer.

TND is a horrible score.

Well, that's your opinion.

I love the soundtrack. It has so many wonderful tracks, 'White Knight', 'Paris and Bond', etc.

TND's score is basicly the Bond theme over and over again.

You are arguing against facts:

Track Listings
1. Tomorrow Never Dies - Sheryl Crow
2. White Knight
3. The Sinking Of The Devonshire
4. Company Car
5. Station Break
6. Paris And Bond
7. The Last Goodbye
8. Hamburg Break In
9. Hamburg Break Out
10. Doctor Kaufman
11. *-3-Send
12. Underwater Discovery
13. Backseat Driver - David Arnold, Alex Gifford Of Propellerheads
14. Surrender - K.D. Lang
15. James Bond Theme - Moby

DaltonCraig007

I think you should listen to the soundtrack again.

What music is in this track other than the Bond theme for nearly 3 minutes ?

White Knight also has the Bond theme, so does Hamburg Break In, Backseat Driver. I am a trained musician, @Zekidk, I know what I am talking about. TND is a very poor soundtrack musically. It's basicly a poor pastiche of Barry. If you couldn't hear the Bond theme played like 4 times in the first 30 minutes of TND, well I can't help you. The poorest Arnold scores are, by a fair margin, CR and TND. TWINE and DAD are better, but are still not 'great'. Only QOS is the closest Arnold has been to scoring good music.

Zekidk

So you are a "trained musician" who are stating the fact that TND is a "poor soundtrack musically", compared to DAD?

Well, I'm a trained musician, too, and I prefer TND over the other soundtracks.

I also like whoppers better than Big Macs, and prefer german cars over japanese, btw!

JBFan626

So, amidst the TND debate, we're talking Skyfall, and no official confirmation of David Arnold yet, right? There is no mention on the official Sony Press Release:

http://www.sonypicturespublicity.com/dom/secured/mediaassets/mediaAssets.seam?categoryId=492&categoryName=PRESS+KIT\Press+Release&terrtitleId=1005&actionMethod=secured/mediaassets/mediaAssets.xhtml:TERR_ManageMediaAssetsAction.viewMediaAssetsForTitleForCategory()&cid=5228

haserot

Zekidk said:
So you are a "trained musician" who are stating the fact that TND is a "poor soundtrack musically", compared to DAD?

Well, I'm a trained musician, too, and I prefer TND over the other soundtracks.

I also like whoppers better than Big Macs, and prefer german cars over japanese, btw!

i agree with you on those two numbers...

what about this one?.... my absolute favorite from the soundtrack.

SirHenryLeeChaChing

Zekidk said:
So you are a "trained musician" who are stating the fact that TND is a "poor soundtrack musically", compared to DAD?

Well, I'm a trained musician, too, and I prefer TND over the other soundtracks.

I also like whoppers better than Big Macs, and prefer german cars over japanese, btw!

=D> Well said Zekidk! I don't go for DC's brand of musical snobbery either. DA has tons of feel at times much like his mentor John Barry. I love that DA pays homage to Barry and the "Bond sound" and feel it should be mandatory for any composer to recognize and make sure we get that.

I am also a trained musician and TND agreed is DA's best effort to date. Barry also uses the JB theme quite often.

DaltonCraig007

TND is the dumbed down version of Barry. Arnold copied Barry sound but without his the musical greatness. Yes there are a few nice tracks in the TND score, but all in all it's just a poor pastiche of Barry. QOS was much better, where Arnold finally shows some musical capacity. DAD is better than TND because atleast it is innovative. Maybe too much in parts, but atleast Arnold tried some of his own stuff instead of blatantly ripping off someone who's far more talented than him. The only good soundtrack, musically speaking, that Arnold has made in the franchise is QOS, but it is still far, far away from Barry.

Zekidk

DaltonCraig007

You can't argue against taste.

I'm not saying that TND is the best Arnold soundtrack - period! I'm merely saying that it is my personal favorite of his, and that I prefer TND over DAD, CR , etc...

And I'll prefer a "dumbed down version of Barry" any day, over Michael Kamen, Eric Serra, Marvin Hamlisch and Bill Conti.

DaltonCraig007

Eric Serra is the best non-Barry composer that the franchise had, almost to the level of Barry himself. I hope he returns one day, because he is one of the best, most talented, versatile and original composer in the business today.

DarthBork

David Arnold's Twitter:

'DavidGArnold

For those asking about Bond 23 and my involvement in it I dont have any news.they'll announce something when they have something to announce'

nick_007

The thing - for me - with TND is that, yes, it is a very lame run of the mill Sound for the film. Yes there is too much Bond theme.

However(!), outside of the film if you're looking for an OST with great Bond theme renditions it's got plenty to choose from. I still listen to Back Seat Driver whenever I'm driving in a parking lot.

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