Arnold was called back to score the 19th Bond, "The World Is Not Enough". Once again he employed a full "Bond" orchestra, and used a number of more unusual oriental instruments to connect the score to the relevant spot on the world culturally. For The World Is Not Enough, Arnold began to experiment more with electronic techno and advanced spatial mixing. If you have the TWINE album, "Come In 007, You're Time Is Up" and "Submarine" are very good examples of this.

With "Die Another Day", Arnold updates this sound increasingly, and has created a very contempary, if slightly controversial Bond score. The increased use of drum loops, techno and digital sample work very well here, and the Bond sound crashes into the 21st century with style.

The album is headed up by Madonna's single "Die Another Day". Think of this what you will, but it is undeniable that it brings the "Bond ballad" into the new millennium, and is a very catchy tune even as a non-Bond theme.

Second on the disc is Paul Oakenfold's new remix of the James Bond Theme. Oakenfold, who recently scored Sworfish (starring Halle Berry) with composer Christopher Young gives the Bond theme a welcome new "zing". Unlike Moby's 1997 rendition, this tune keeps the Bond theme in its entirety, and is a far more groovy tune, fantastically mixed by Oakenfold.

We are then taken to the score. The first track "On The Beach" will be a joy to hear more Bond fans, as this features the Gunbarrel music often missing from soundtrack albums. It is certainly different, and is very guitar "wah, wah" heavy, like Lalo Schrifrin's Dirty Harry scores. After two minutes of scene setting by this track, we are taken to:

"Hovercraft Chase", which is and immensely exciting piece of Bond score. Undercut by an orchestra going mad, a brilliant techo section, and some very impressive mixing effects, this track pretty much sets the scene for the rest of the album.

"Some Kind Of Hero" is a very echo heavy atmospheric track, and fits the grittier tone of this film well. Once again, the orchestra is ably backed up by the techo section, but fortunately, it is used well and never begins to sound like noise.

"Welcome To Cuba" made my jaw hit the floor when I first heard it. It may seem quite possibly the most un-Bond piece of music ever written, but if you imagine the setting in Cuba, I can imagine it fitting very well. It does sound a little like the "Sex And The City" theme, which can't be bad really.

"Jinx Jordan" and "Jinx & James" are both more mellow pieces, that bring the romantic element of the film together. The themes are a brief welcome break from techno-heaven, and show how talented Arnold is as a composer.

"A Touch Of Frost" is a very good piece. Starting out as what seems like a romantic cue quickly transforms into a heartbeat - like slow techno track, that sounds like it comes from a section where Bond is spying and trying not to get caught.

"Icarus" is a spine-chillingly fantastic track. Arnold employs the use of a choir for the first time in a Bond score since Moonraker (1979). The track is brief but highly evocative, and the choir give it a kind of "Omen-esque" quality that is fantastically chilling.

"Laser Fight" is another expertly crafted track. A non techno section builds up suspense for a minute or so, and then explodes into a synth of techno batteries and orchestral swells. The pace is kept constantly till the track ends at 4:35.

"Whiteout" is yet another great techno track. The sample kicks up from the outset, and the horn and bass section of the orchestra really flexes its muscles. The piece harkens back to "Hovercraft Chase", and I can imagine it sounding fanstastic in the film. The track also brings back the choir to amazing effect against the techno loops.

"Iced Inc." is a more drum 'n bass orientated track. The horn section of the orchestra once again is out in full force, as some very bassy techno sample handles the pace of the track. Listen for similarities from the horn section to "Tomorrow Never Dies" track "White Knight".

Finally, after this excitement, we are taken to the penultimate track, "Antonov". At almost 12 minutes in length, it covers almost the entire ending. The effective four barred piano sample from "Pipeline" in The World Is Not Enough is used again, and despite many reviews have cited this as Arnold ripping himself off, it brings back musical continuity and works very well against the more subdued techo section. The track flips alternatively between techno and orchestra, and then combines the two, in a great pattern that slightly mimics "Submarine" in The World Is Not Enough.

For the obvious 'Bond getting the girl at the end' scene, Arnold uses Jinx's theme from earlier to create a fun and soft track that closes the film nicely. Once again, there are thematic hints from The World Is Not Enough's final track "Christmas In Turkey" ... all good stuff!

Arnold has proved himself a very capable composer, and has given the Bond franchise new life musically, and perhaps you will find this score too techno heavy, but Bond must change with the times, as must the score.

One minor complaint is Warner Bros release. Including only about 45 minutes score from the reported 106 minutes that Arnold wrote for Die Another Day, it seems a slight shame WB coulnd't have discarded the "added bonus material - which belongs on the DVD really" on the disc and given us more score. Surely the purpose of a soundtrack is just that, the music from the film. Chapter III records released the updated Tomorrow Never Dies score in 1999, and hopefully a similar effort will be made with the remaining score from the film as soon as possible!

Well done David Arnold, look forward to Bond 21!


Pleasing James Bond Soundtrack   June 12, 2006
Alamo_guy
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

David Arnold's DIE ANOTHER DAY soundtrack is adequately pleasing and chocked full of music. If you enjoy the "James Bond Theme" you certainly get a good dose of it here with several variations. Track 3: On The Beach, for instance contains the opening gun barrel music while Track 4: Hovercraft Chase, is a tour de force extensively and effectively using the "James Bond Theme" to good advantage. Track 2: James Bond Theme (Bond vs. Oakenfold) is an updated version of the theme not used in the film, but intended primarily for the soundtrack album. It is very good and combines modernistic elements with the traditional arrangement. Track 6: Welcome To Cuba is a vibrant piece designed to enhance the Cuban locale and it accomplishes this beautifully. Tracks 7, 8 and 15 all incorporate the Arnold's "Love Theme" composed for James Bond and Jinx Jordan. These are very rich and lush provocative sounding compositions composed for their private moments. "Die Another Day" performed by Madonna on Track 1 is a very non-traditional main title James Bond song that works well in the film and has to grow on you, which it has done with time. Overall, this is a good James Bond soundtrack.


Splendid, But Perhaps Not to "Die" For   November 14, 2002
G M. Stathis (cedar city, utah USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

It can now be said that only two film composers have written scores for more than two James Bond films. The first of course set the standard, John Barry. The second, David Arnold, is successfully taking 007 into a new era. With his third Bond entry, "Die Another Day," Arnold has again created a score that keeps touch with the revered past but also keeps pace with changing times. He may be guilty of too much of the latter, however, with perhaps just a bit too much in the way of electronic effects. Still, this is a solid Bond score with excellent action and dramatic cues and more than adequate romantic interludes. The opening "gun barrel" and pre-credit music ("On the Beach" and "Hovercraft Chase") is first rate. Arnold has been particulary effective with the pre-credit scences in all three of his Bond scores. Arnold once said that he had done just about everything he had ever wanted to do with a Bond score with his first foray into the Bond cycle, "Tomorrow Never Dies," and it remains his best effort so far. But Arnold's music for "Die Another Day" ably fits the bill and makes for the basis of a fine soundtrack album. The title vocal by Madonna is a bit much by Bond standards (that was to be expected), but will, no doubt, be embraced as a worthy addition to a long line of 007 themes. The inclusion of "Bond vs. Okenfold," however, is too much. How many trendy retreads of the James Bond theme do we really need? Arnold has made interesting and judicious use of this vital musical idiom in three scores, but the various "new interpretations" (this time Paul Oakenfold)are becoming tiresome. This is otherwise a splendidly produced soundtrack album; well recorded and packaged, with some wonderful additions as an enhanced CD (the gallery of Bond film posters is a treat). As a 40th Anniversary tribute to James Bond this will do nicely, and one suspects that like 007, David Arnold will return.


Musically definitely a new Bond!   November 13, 2002
G. Kroener (Bamberg, Bavaria Germany)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful

Finally here it is! First of all, if you didn't like TWINE, then you'll probably hate this one. It's much more electronical than previous Bond scores and also contains techno rythms. It's also one of the few Bond scores that has a very dramatic chorus, which works brilliantly with all the action tracks.
The score definitely DOES contain the James Bond Theme. And not only that: when I listened to this for the first time, I instantly recognized tributes to From Russia With Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Moonraker, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough. Some people may say that it's just a rip- off, but it's definitely not! It's so brilliantly mixed that you barely notice! The best track and probably one of the best chase music ever written without a doubt is Hovercraft Chase. Fast music combined with an excellent interpretation of the James Bond Theme.
The gunbarrel music goes back to the Barry- style gunbarrel mixed with a drum loop. Also, the score contains much more cues of the Bond theme than what's labelled on the cover.
A weak point of this soundtrack is that there's no real theme on it, there are only cues. With Madonna's title song obviously unsuitable for adapting into a score, composer David Arnold had to try something different and it works out brilliant at the end.
Now that I finally have this excellent score, I really wish MGM had dropped some of the nice, but useless bonus material in favour of more music. This album gives us only about 40 out of 100 minutes pure score.
Nevertheless, this soundtrack is absolutely brilliant!


Good, but not best   December 27, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Firstly, Madonna's theme to the movie is a travesty. It leaves David Arnold with no melodic theme to work around whatsoever. That being so, what Arnold has done with the score it excellent, but does not surpass his work on Tomorrow Never Dies.

Die Another Die (DAD) is more heavily infused with Drum n Bass beats that were first seen in The World Is Not Enough, and it gives incredible pace to the movie. It also makes for great driving music. DAD subtlely alludes to past bond themes; The long chromatic notes in 'Whiteout' reminiscent of OHMSS are enough to bring a tear to any bond fan's eye. DAD also sees a return of Arnold's choir that was strangely absent in TWINE.

However, the soundtrack is too short and Oakenfold's "remix" is nothing more than the Bond theme with a drum beat stuck in the background - and not a particularly imaginative one at that. I would have liked to have seen The Clash's 'London Calling' included. Admittedly it would have been out of place, but no more so than Scott Walker's 'Only myself to blame' in TWINE.