Casino Royale [SOUNDTRACK]

David Arnold (Artist), Nicholas Dodd (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 14, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Sony Classics
• ASIN: B000IOM1SW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,315 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Now in its fifth decade, the James Bond film series has outlived the Cold War concerns that spawned it--not to mention the acting careers of a Sean Connery replacement or three. Indeed, its musical sensibility has often been the cycle's most reliable artistic link across the decades. While the arrival of latest Bond Daniel Craig inspired the producers to forge a long-overdue prequel plot gambit ("How Bond became Bond") for their Casino Royale redux, composer David Arnold's fourth Bond score helps bridge the past while subtly pushing it ever forward. The album's absence of a pop-song title single (though the melody of the Arnold/Chris Cornell-composed "You Know My Name" is interpolated into the underscore) isn't terribly shocking, considering the waning fortunes of recent efforts in the genre. But other traditions continue, with the full-bodied score here subtly infusing the elegant spirit of original Bond maestro John Barry into Arnold's own mix of brooding tension-builders and the dynamic, brassy rhythms of his signature action cues. The latter even gingerly cross over into the synth-charged club milieu of Eric Serra's GoldenEye score, a sensibility that was reviled as sacrilege by Bond aficionados a decade ago but that's since become a staple of mainstream film scoring. Arnold brings it all full circle with the muscular coda "The Name's Bond...," a lovingly authentic, barely revamped workout of the epochal Barry/Monty Norman theme that anchors the series to glories past. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No Main Title? I'll Wait For a More Complete Soundtrack, November 23, 2006

By	John D. Pride (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I saw Casino Royale yesterday and loved the soundrack and score. Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" had been brillianly reworked to include string and horn flourishes that put the tune up there with John Barry's best. Sadly, the exciting jolt of that song has been omitted from this CD, so one never gets to feel immersed in the experience of the film. This was a stupid, stupid decision, if you ask me. Chris Cornell has said that the decision to leave his song off the CD was his alone. First, it is hard to believe that two major forces like Sony and the TWE organization would give Cornell such a right-of-refusal. Second, what kind of moron decides to take his song off of a Bond soundtrack? Cornell is either lying or a complete idiot. He does, however, sound great on the main titles track. It should have been here.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good soundtrack for a good Bond flick., December 17, 2006

By	D. Dorton - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The negatives first:

The title song is not on the album, nor is it on the import or iTunes version. The only way to get the title song is to buy the single, which may not be the same version of the song that was used in the film.

The cool version of the Bond theme that was in the trailer is not on the album. That is par for the course, though - the equally memorable trailer music for the Brosnan Bonds never appeared on those soundtracks, either.

The iTunes version has more music from the movie - supposedly including all of the cues recorded by David Arnold (though the tracks on the CD will have been chosen to optimize listening to in album form).

If the only reason you want this soundtrack is for multiple renditions of the James Bond theme, go buy Tomorrow Never Dies, because you'll be disappointed. Since the movie is about Bond becoming 007, the music holds back on the Bond theme, with only a few brief statements before a fantastic full-orchestra rendition in the last track.

All of that being said, this is a great Bond soundtrack. Even though there is sparse use of the classic theme (it only appears partially and briefly a couple of times before the end), this is still pure Bond. Arnold channels Barry and the classic Bond sound effortlessly, with brassy orchestral statements of the title song and the movie's themes that don't sound dated, but still would sound equally at home in Goldfinger.

Thankfully gone is Arnold's overuse of electronic music and manipulation from the last two outings. They are somewhat replaced by a heavier use of percussion than we're used to in Bond music, but it works well to lend energy to the action tracks.

We have energetic, percussive action music, classic Barry-esque brass and orchestra work, romantic themes for locations and Bond girls, a couple of hooks to previous Bond scores, and a thoughtful approach to scoring the development of a 007 in progress. The full rendition of the Bond theme is well worth the wait - no electronics, no remix dance version - just a great arrangement of the 007 theme that could have been played by the Monty Norman orchestra itself. Great stuff, and the best Bond soundtrack since Tomorrow Never Dies. Recommended.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Close but no cigar, November 14, 2006

By	Tarquin Linköping (Sweden) - See all my reviews

As a fan of the James Bond music scores, the wait for Casino Royale's music has been an eager one. It's also been something of an emotional rollercoaster.

When EON Productions announced that it had acquired the rights for Casino Royale, David Arnold mentioned in an interview that the series would have to take a completely new musical direction from now on. Hooray, I thought; this should be an interesting departure!

To be completely honest, I had hoped that Arnold would not be selected to do the score for Casino Royale. This was a new James Bond film, with a new direction and a whole new take on the character. The last three Bond scores had rather left me cold, with their derivative style, techno percussion loops and repetitive, pounding brass.

However, when the Sony website released thirty-second clips of each track on the new album, I was surprised and delighted by how much of the traditional Bond magic had seeped through into the new score. The rollercoaster went up.

This feeling was not to last. I should have remembered that James Bond is always surrounded by marketing hooha and that any talk of a radical departure in the music would probably have to be seen in that light. It would be unfair to accuse David Arnold of disingenuity; in some ways this score is quite different from its three predecessors.

But there is the rub.

There may be more orchestra, but it's still loud and cacophonous. For sure, there is a little more melody (and EON Productions has at last allowed Arnold to relate the rest of his score to the song), but there isn't anything like enough melody for a Bond score. Gone is the electronic techno, but in its place is an equally distressing chaotic din of percussion and wailing brass.

The rollercoaster noesdives!

The real problem is the action cues. In the romantic passages where the melody for is actually allowed out, the score is vibrant and lovely. But when the Bond character gets up to his usual mischief, by the score we could being quite literally any action film genre at all. Nowhere is this contrast more apparent than between tracks eight and nine. Track 8(Miami International) is at teeth-jarring 13 minutes of typical, generic action film music. Just as you're reaching for the paracetamol, on comes Track 9(I'm the Money) and you feel like you're back in a Bond movie. For all of 27 seconds at least.

It's very hard to know how to grade David Arnold's score for Casino Royale. This is obviously a vastly superior work to the last two Bond film scores he has done. But if it bests Tomrrow Never Dies, it does so barely by a whisker. And despite some errie overtones from Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith, it doesn't even stand in the shadow of any of the other non-John Barry Bonds.

It gets three stars because it's halfway there. But a classic Bond score it ain't!