Customer Reviews

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997 Film)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The expanded or "composer's cut" cd for David Arnold's soudtrack to "Tommorow Never Dies" follows a recent, and very welcome, development, that is soundtrack recordings that include the major part of the recorded score rather than "representative selections." The original soundtrack album was missing a good deal of a very good Arnold score. In place of the missing cuts were both vocals, as it should be, but also a Moby rendidtion of the James Bond theme which, at best, could be labled "interesting." There is only one negative about this recording...it should include Arnold's vocal "Tommorow Never Dies-Surrender" (the only reason this cd is reduced to four stars rather than a full five). Otherwise, this is a most important step for soundtrack recordings, and a very nice buy. The interview with Arnold seemed a waste at first glance, but it is worth a look.

As the James Bond film series moves into the next millenium, it's exciting that the producers have retained the services of a composer of David Arnold's caliber to set the pace for Pierce Brosnan's onscreen adventures as 007. As originally released in 1997, "Tomorrow Never Dies" was the best Bond film score in the last decade (at least!); the only problem with that original CD was the absence of any music from the 2nd half of the film. The current CD more than makes up for this lack, with seven previously-unheard tracks that capture all the energy and excitement of the complete "Tomorrow Never Dies." "White Knight" recalls the very best of the early John Barry 007 scores, and is easily the most powerful track on the CD ... appropriately enough, since this cue accompanied the movie's explosive opening. "Backseat Driver," "Bike Chase" and "All in a Day's Work" are each strong, driving, techno-powered cues liberally sprinkled with the dashing "James Bond Theme;" as composer Arnold observes in the interview that comprises the final track on the CD, when one sees James Bond doing Bond-esque things onscreen, one wants to hear the James Bond theme. His sensibilities are dead-on here! Quieter moments include "Paris and Bond," "The Last Goodbye," and "Kowloon Bay," and these tracks help to pace the CD. Fortunately Arnold has sufficiently strong thematic material that even the interludes capture your attention and carry you along. The finale, "All in a Day's Work," is David Arnold -- and James Bond! -- triumphant, with a powerful crescendo of sound building to the sort of thunderous climax that only Arnold seems to be able to deliver these days, then lapsing into the lovely romantic closing themes as Bond and Wai Lin embrace and the scene fades to black ... beautiful!

I'm excited that the full score to "Tomorrow Never Dies" was finally released -- too often of late movie "soundtracks" consist of hit songs "inspired by" the movie in question. David Arnold himself suffered this indignity with the movie "Godzilla," where only snippets of his wonderful score made it onto the CD. (Maybe Chapter III Records, the label for the new "Tomorrow Never Dies" CD, will see the light and release Arnold's complete score to "Godzilla" as well. We can only hope!)

The weakest point of the new "Tomorrow Never Dies" CD is the interview with Arnold himself. While easily of interest to afficianados, it nevertheless contains little information that might not have been better supplied in written form, as liner notes. And given that this track is more than eleven minutes long, it's too much ... especially since Sheryl Crow's lovely opening number, k.d. lang's powerful "Surrender," and even one of Arnold's tracks from the original soundtrack CD ("Station Break") are absent from the new CD. If you're looking for a complete musical experience, you'll be required to purchase both CDs ... and that's unfortunate. Despite this, the new "Tomorrow Never Dies" score is easily worth the purchase price; listen to this and Arnold's more recent "The World is Not Enough" and you're going to want to go out and stylishly stop evildoers in your neighborhood. I highly recommend this CD!

The expanded release of Tomorrow Never Dies completely makes the first release obsolete! In this composers cut, it adds the remaining 20-so minutes of score that was missing from the first release and places it in the correct order. And the interview at the end is interesting on how Arnold composed the score. Arnold really hits home with this score. Almost in the style of John Barrys earlier scores. But Arnold adds modern styles of the James Bond theme into a nicely bleneded of music worthy of the 4 stars Im giving it. But two things are missing: the tracks "Station Break" and Mobys version of the James Bond theme from the first album. With the inclusion of these tracks, this album would be worth 5 stars.

A must have for any James Bond music lover!

When the buzz began about the second volume of the TND score, as far back as 1997, it was exciting news. David Arnold had done an incredible job scoring this film and naturally, fans wanted to be able to listen to every piece of music . Although I love the music, in an not in love with the CD. The total score for this film is close to 100 minutes, with 50 of it (not counting the Moby que) on the first CD. What we should have had was a 40 minute second volume instead of a 75 minute volume with only 26 minutes of new music and still having certain pieces of music missing, such as the second part of the pre-title sequence, Bond's briefing in the limo, etc. In spite of 2 volumes of music, fans wanting the definitive score will still need the special edition DVD. I am very glad we have this second volume, but wish we had it all. David Arnold's music deserves all the best!

Let's get to the point: this one is plain great! David Arnold "updated" Bond the right way. Old Barry style combined with electronical tunes.
Also, this is one of the few Bond soundtracks that contain the music of the gunbarrell sequence. By the way, this is a must-buy for any fans who love many variations of the James Bond Theme. There are at least six tracks that contain portions of it.
But there's also a bit of shadow: they've taken out the title song "Tomorrow never dies" and the James Bond Theme Remix by Moby, that were on the original soundtrack.

After the original score release came out with about 2/3 of David Arnold's score featured and 3 songs, one by Sheryl Crow, one by K.D. Lang, and the other performed by Moby, a full score release was released in addition to the other release. This score album contains all of the score for Tomorrow Never Dies. The last track is an 11 minute interview with David Arnold himself and is interesting to hear how he came up with the music for this film. Tracks 1-11 are included on the original release and the new ones are tracks 12-18, which is the remaining 1/3 of the score. David Arnold tries to imitate John Barry's sound from the older Bond films and since then other composers like Bill Conti, Michael Kamen, and Eric Serra have tried to do the same. However, Arnold does it the best. Monty Norman's legendary Bond themes are present throughout, most notably in "Company Car". A woodwind love theme is found in "Paris and Bond" and "The Last Goodbye". The action music is exactly what you would expect coming from a Bond film, with those high and wailing trumpets, as in "White Knight", "The Sinking of the Devonshire", "Bike Chase", "Bike Shop Fight", "Boarding the Stealth", and "A Tricky Spot For 007". "Hamburg Break Out" and "Backseat Driver" contain the action theme again, but this time with a techno beat added to it. For the most part, a great Bond score that I feel Arnold will be able to deliver in the next Bond films to come.

The addition of the music from the second half of the soundtrack makes this a great addition to your James Bond soundtrack collection, or even if you just love great action music. I think the interview at the end should have been scrapped and replaced by the two songs from the movie (Sheryl Crow and k. d. lang) and I wish that the music from the party in Hamburg was included as well...But Arnold's ability to customize the score based on the locale of the action is ingenious and well executed.

As originally released in 1997, "Tomorrow Never Dies" was the best Bond film score in the last decade (at least!); the only problem with that original CD was the absence of any music from the 2nd half of the film. This reissue more than makes up for this lack, with seven previously-unheard tracks that capture all the energy and excitement of the complete "Tomorrow Never Dies." The more I listen to this CD, the more I think it's possibly my favorite movie soundtrack of all time. (It's definitely in the top five, at any rate.)

The cue "White Knight" recalls the very best of the early John Barry 007 scores, and is easily one of the most powerful tracks on the CD ... appropriately enough, since this cue accompanied the movie's explosive opening. "Backseat Driver" is a strong, driving, techno-powered cue liberally sprinkled with the dashing "James Bond Theme;" as composer Arnold observes in the interview that comprises the final track on the CD, when one sees James Bond doing Bond-esque things onscreen, one wants to hear the James Bond theme. His sensibilities are dead-on here! "Helicopter Ride" and "Bike Chase", back to back, are simply awesome; I can play these two tracks over and over and not get tired of them, at all. Quieter moments include "Paris and Bond," "The Last Goodbye," and "Kowloon Bay," and these tracks help to pace the CD. Fortunately Arnold has sufficiently strong thematic material that even the interludes capture your attention and carry you along. The finale, "All in a Day's Work," is David Arnold -- and James Bond! -- triumphant, with a powerful crescendo of sound building to the sort of thunderous climax that only Arnold seems to be able to deliver these days, then lapsing into the lovely romantic closing themes as Bond and Wai Lin embrace and the scene fades to black ... beautiful!

I'm excited that the full score to "Tomorrow Never Dies" was finally released -- too often of late movie "soundtracks" consist of hit songs "inspired by" the movie in question. David Arnold himself suffered this indignity with the movie "Godzilla," where only snippets of his wonderful score made it onto the CD. (Thank gosh for the bootleg.)

The weakest point of the new "Tomorrow Never Dies" CD is the interview with Arnold himself. While of some interest, it contains little information that might not have been better supplied in written form, as liner notes. And given that this track is more than eleven minutes long, it's too much ... especially since Sheryl Crow's opening number, k.d. lang's powerful "Surrender," and even one of Arnold's tracks from the original soundtrack CD ("Station Break") are absent from this CD. If you're looking for a complete musical experience, you'll be required to purchase both CDs ... and that's unfortunate. Despite this, the new "Tomorrow Never Dies" score is easily worth the purchase price; listen to this and Arnold's more recent Bond efforts ("The World is Not Enough" and "Die Another Day") and you'll find yourself driving at high speeds through your neighborhood looking for world-domination plots to foil. I highly recommend this CD!

Forget what kalashin wrote-this is the best Bond score since the Living Daylights. David Arnold not only pays tribute to John Barry's music (which SINGLE-HANDEDLY established an entire genre of musical leitmotif: the spy sound) but he effectively updates it to the late 90's. The film itself borrows a little too much from current action-hero films and the score does reflect that as it HAS TO since that is the action on the screen, but David Arnold has weaved a thrilling score with some excellent themes to perfectly capture James Bond. I only wish the ending theme sung by kd Lang was used as the title track(as was planned) and that it was included here. It is on the first release of the score and playing it along the credit sequence is a treat. Arnold's score for The World is Not Enough is similarly excellent and I can only hope he continues with the Bond franchise, with the only possible exception having John Barry come back (if the producers would come to an agreement with him-he is, after all a MULTI-OSCAR WINNER and his music is a huge part of Bond's success). I would like to even see Arnold and Barry collaborate... in the meantime, pick up this CD and shake that martini and kick back and enjoy!

Unlike the OTHER Tomorrow Never Dies soundtrack, this one shines. David Arnold's fast paced and energetic score certainly is better than the GoldenEye disaster by a longshot. The James Bond Theme is used often, but never too much, and there is plenty of non-thematic elements. The love theme between Paris and Bond is a great piece, and the WAH-WAH's that appear in "Surrender" are a sure Bondlike music piece. Let's hope Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli stick with David Arnold for several films to come.