Customer Reviews

You Only Live Twice: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

John Barry has a talent rare to the world of the cinema. He creates great melodies. On top of that, he creates (or used to, when he was still willing to do so) great arrangements and orchestrations.

You Only Live Twice is, in my opinion, the very best theme song ever written for a film. It's hauntingly beautiful, creative, and captures the mood of the film's Japanese location. Even Nancy Sinatra is at her very best singing it.

The music includes the great "Capsule In Space" theme (also known as "Space March"), and the rest of the album is also good, but not as great as those two pieces.

Again, the major problem with this release is the great music that isn't in it...When will they ever learn? Hey - United Artists/MGM/whomever...wake up!! Time to release ALL of the complete Barry Bond scores (you can keep the rest).

John Barry pulls off another good James Bond soundtrack yet again. This soundtrack is good, and John Barry does a great job with the space capsule music. They are very exciting and riveting. Listen to the track 2 clip to sample the space music.

Some highlights are:
"Capsule In Space" which is an exciting and tense track, the tensions building and building until the end of the track.
"The Death Of Aki" which is a good track that displays the love and sadness in the relationship between Bond and Aki. Halfway through, the music becomes tense as the assassin tries to kill James Bond, and then ends with sadness as Aki is killed instead.
"Mountains And Sunsets" is definitely the number one song on the soundtrack. It is a beautiful instrumental version of the You Only Live Twice title song, and is played primarily by violins and harps. And finally the exciting "Bond Averts World War Three". It is exciting and tense as Bond fights Blofeld's henchman Hans, and then turns into sheer suspense as a faster version of Barry's "Capsule In Space" is played for the scene wheere Bond struggles to stop Blofeld's spaceship from destroying the American spaceship.

Tracks 3 and 5 are exciting tracks, and tracks 9 and 10 are tense and exciting as Bond infiltrates Blofeld's volcano base and Blofeld prepares to launch his spaceship.

Overall this soundtrack is good, despite the missing tracks which is a pattern among most of the James Bond movie soundtracks. If you are a James Bond music fan then you should definitely buy it, but if you are not you should listen to the clips first before buying it.

The 5th James Bond movie and one of the most memorable and soothing title songs ever! John Barry does magnificent work. Nancy Sinatra performs with undeniable charm and sensational class! Mountains and Sunsets is a loving piece as Countdown for Blofeld is intense and exciting. Capsule in Space is a haunting melody that really gets the attention of the viewer and Bond averts WWIII is another great tune. If one can complain about this great soundtrack, it would be that Little Nellie Attack was sadly not included. You Only Live Twice. A truly inspirational song for a inspirational soundtrack!

Critics seem to either love or hate John Barry's score for "You Only Live Twice. Part of the criticism has had to do with Nancy Sinatra and a rather subdued title song that did not seem to fit the James Bond mold. In fact, the song, with meaningful lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, has weathered quite well, and is actually counted as one of the best of the series, and Sinatra deserves some credit for that (it is also among the best songs that she has done). A different demo vocal was recorded and can be heard on the anniversary "Best of James Bond," but it only serves to underscore how good the actual title song is. The score is also worthy of note. The title theme is used with interesting variations throughout the score and Barry added another theme that has come to be one of his most popular, the "Space March," heard in several scenes but introduced in the pre-title sequence, "Capsule in Space." The soundtrack stands on its own as a very enjoyable recording and should be considered among the four best scores and recordings in the Bond series. There are missing tracks, as to be expected, some of which appear on Nic Raines' "Bond Back in Action" ("Bond's Funeral" and "Human Torpedo"). But even there the attempt to do tribute to Barry falls a touch short, since Raines' arrangement of the post-credits opening to the film is abbreviated, and that is a pity since the full "Funeral," "Human Torpedo" and Entry into Tokyo" music is so memorable. Barry's use of oriental idioms avoids serious cliches, and the action tracks, especially "Fight at Kobe Dock" and "A Drop in the Ocean," are inventive and good listening. As Barry's fourth full score for the Bond pictures there could have been a good deal of repetition. Instead, he produced a surprisingly original song and score which departed from some of the patterns that Barry himself created, and yet it remains without mistake Bond...James Bond.

This soundtrack is good but tracks like 4, 5, and 6 are a bit weird in my opinion. John Barry does a great job with the outer space music. Listen to the track 2 clip to sample the space music. Tracks like 3 and 11 are exciting, and track 7 is a beautiful instrumental version of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. The title song is pretty good. If I were you, I would listen to the clips, but don't judge this soundtrack by just the clips. Definitely think about buying this though.

The previous reviewer was right about the enchanting melodies and the traditional Japanese instruments adding greatly to this soundtrack. It is excellent. The end title is even better than the opening because there is a bit of a lead-in that adds to its beauty. The death of Aki is another sad and beautiful piece.

This is John Barry's 5th outing as Bond composer. Slick 60's fare, with however a surprising lack of the much desired 'James Bond Theme.' Since the movie is based in Japan, Barry has again gone out of his way to use traditional Japanese instruments and to give the score a very Far Eastern feel. (As he did with Turkish sounds in FROM RUSIA WITH LOVE, in 1963.)

There are some particularly lovely melodies, especially 'The Wedding' and the swirling title tune (which appears several times).

Nancy Sinatra's unemotional treatment of the title song is a plus.

All in all, a good one for John Barry, which was to pave the way for his first masterpiece...'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' 2 years later.

This movie and soundtrack are such classics that I can't give anything less than 5 stars. The beautiful and inspiring title song to this film is often considered to be the best James Bond theme song ever written, and I'd have to agree with that. Its all-instrumental derivative, "Mountains and Sunsets," is even better. All this music is very visually evocative. For example, "Fight At Kobe Dock" is powerful and expansive, and well-matched to the movie's soaring aerial view of Bond running across a warehouse rooftop subduing scores of Japanese thugs in hand-to-hand combat. "Drop In The Ocean," which accompanied the sports car chase, is equally exciting. "Wedding" is a skillful mixing of western music with Japanese elements such as a finger cymbal and plucked koto. I only wish that in this era of bonus tracks that they'd add the music from the movie that never made it to the soundtrack album: (1) "James Bond Theme" played during the gyrocopter dogfight appears on the "Dr. No" soundtrack, but was a much more important part of this movie, so should have been copied to this album; (2) the music of Bond swimming out of the torpedo tube towards the Japanese shoreline at sundown is simultaneously eerie and beautiful ("Human Torpedo"?); (3) the brief horn theme during the Naval funeral ("Funeral"?); (4) the music while Bond is visiting Tokyo at night on foot ("Entry Into Tokyo"?); (5) brief flute theme while Bond chases a masked knife assassin across a lawn at night; (6) the radio version of Nancy Sinatra's hit "You Only Live Twice," which is slightly different than the two versions here. At any rate, this is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it's a must for serious James Bond fans. This dream is for you, so pay the price.

I am very disapointed because I have not received this CD yet! How long will it take for me to get it????

GREAT JOHN BARRY SCORE TO EARLY JAMES BOND COLD WAR ERA FILM, I HAVE ALL OF THESE CD'S FROM THE JAMES BOND SERIES. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST, WITH A DECIDEDLY ASIAN SOUND TO IT, SINCE MOST OF THIS MOVIE TAKES PLACE IN ASIA (WITH SEAN CONNERY MADE UP TO LOOK ASIAN! NICE THEME SONG BY NANCY SINATRA, TOO.