Customer Reviews

Casino Royale

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The vinyl LP pressing of this title has often been regarded as one of the best high fidelity recordings among audiophiles. This version is a dual sided disc with one layer encoded at 24/96 (for DVD Video players) and the other at 24/192 (for DVD Audio players). The uncompressed 24/192 side has quite an astounding range for such an old recording. I find myself pulling out the LP less and listening to this. btw, this recording is NOT 5.1 surround but hi-rez stereo. Very enjoyable. As close as you can get to listening to the master tapes!

Burt Bacharach's score really captures the vitality of the 60's with this soundtrack to CASINO ROYALE. The title theme performed by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass was just so IN and carefree. Times were changing and tastes in morality and music were in a state of flux. Whereas the official James Bond film series stayed mainstream, CASINO ROYALE definitely seemed like an entry in the pop culture of those times and this album really captures that madcap nature right in the midst of all those goings-on. You can listen to this album and find that this is where it still happens. Dusty Springfield's performance of "The Look of Love" is so poetically erotic.

The campy, silly 60's Casino Royal done decades before the Daniel Craig Bond version was very much a product of the times. Here the soundtrack is done in two technological styles and presented on a two sided set up on DVD audio. The musical stylings of Herb Albert and the Tiajuanna Brass are fun, but it's the Dusty Springfield version of "The Look of Love" that brings most listeners. I'd put it second to the audiofile 45rpm vynul pressings.

Is this the one with the vocal reprise of the movie's theme. Hard to tell from Amazon's site, but probably so, which would make it better than the others.