James Bond without John Berry? To some it seems
almost criminal. Indeed, only David Arnold has come close to duplicating
Berry's style. But that begs the question: Must all Bond scores emulate
Barry? Is there no room for something new? It seems that most of the other
composers in the Bond franchise would say yes. There is Eric Serra with his,
um, interesting take on the Bond series (to say the least), Michael Kaman
and his Latin guitar version of the Bond theme (which works sometimes and
then sometimes not), and the rest.
And there is Bill Conti. I've heard the end
titles from The Right Stuff, which was released a short time after For
Your Eyes Only, and I can't believe that both scores were composed by
the same person. Where Barry has also infused a small amount of pop music
into his scores, Conti embraces it wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, this was
in a period where disco was the pop music of the day, and it really causes
his score to suffer for it. The action sequences especially suffer from
this. The worst of these is the ski chase (Runaway). The wangy synth
effects can become highly annoying at times, ever if the underlying melody
is rather interesting.
Another way in which Conti separates himself
from the scores that have come before is in the fact that the Bond theme is
never played the standard way. Conti usually employs brass to perform the
main line of the theme instead of the usual guitar. It works most of the
time, but I really wished he would've used that good 'ole guitar sound just
once. Conti provides a good South American and Greek theme which get
intertwined in an entertaining way in Gonzales Takes a Dive. The
South American theme is pretty much discarded once Bond leaves that locale,
but the Greek theme (which is really Melina's theme), continues to pop up.
Conti also maintains the Barry standard of utilizing strains from the
opening title song in the score, which he does to great effect. The song is
average as far as Bond songs go. It's a little too romantic for my tastes
(unlike Live and Let Die and A View to a Kill).
Conti doesn't abandon the orchestra entirely,
and things actually get really good during finale, but the whole disco sound
that permeates the music will be a definite turnoff to some. Add to the
fact that while the disc sounds great and Ryko did an excellent job on the
remastering for this release, they didn't bother to place the tracks in
order and the cues are a little jumbled. Still, if you've been waiting for a
good release of Conti's score, this will only be a minor problem. The
extended tracks are great and finally provide the opening Bond fanfare ('70s
style and all!). The linear notes are in the more common booklet style
instead of the fold-out poster format, which I'm sure will cause a sigh of
relief from those of you who've had experience with those.
Overall, if you've been waiting for this, you
have no excuse to not pick it up. If you love Barry, then be prepared for
something different. I do not recommend this for anyone who really hates
disco with a passion, though. ***1/2
