| The World is Not Enough |
| Composed by David Arnold |
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Orchestrated and Conducted by Nicholas Dodd Release Date: 1999 |
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It seems that David Arnold has slowed down a little since his last score was to Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's disaster of a film, Godzilla (take that which ever way you wish), which was more than a year ago. Since that great score was never released commercially (copies can be found floating around on Ebay, although that can get pretty expensive), it has been even longer since a new Arnold score has been released on CD. Thankfully, The World is Not Enough, the nineteenth film in the James Bond franchise (the ill-fated Never Say Never Again is not included in that total) is upon us, and the Universal Records provides us with a nice release of Arnold's score. First, we'll take a quick recap of the musical history of James Bond. As most fans are aware, the patron of Bond scoring is John Barry, having scored eleven of the films. Aside from Barry, no other composer has managed to truly capture the musical style that Bond demands as most of them try to distinguish themselves from the signature Barry sound. Sometimes those departures provide a few interesting cues, but for the most part it rarely works. After Eric Serra's laughable score for Goldeneye (which was surprising given that he was recommended by Barry himself), David Arnold was hired to score the next Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. Instead of trying to mold Barry's style around his own, Arnold instead melded his own style around Barry's, and with the two being compatible, the result was one of the most enjoyable Bond scores since The Living Daylights. When the new film was announced, and Arnold was again hired as the composer, many fans waited in eager anticipation of what would result. And as those results became apparent, the reaction to them became mixed. Some proclaimed that Arnold had fallen into the trap of trying to "update" the James Bond sound and that The World is Not Enough was a huge disappointment. Others felt that while it wasn't as strong as Tomorrow Never Dies, it was still a good score. As for myself, I can see how some would be disappointed with this score. While Arnold had employed more modern synth sounds and backbeats in certain cues for Tomorrow Never Dies, this score is more permeated with them. While I generally dislike heavy synth use, Arnold is a composer who knows how to use them well. Thus, even though I am still a big fan of Arnold's first Bond score, I feel that The World is Not Enough excels in several areas, and I find it to be quite an excellent James Bond score. This time around, Arnold's original title song survives, and while it is not as strong as "Surrender," it's still one of the better opening title songs that has been composed for the series (the music video on the other hand is a totally different matter entirely). As with all properly planned title songs, the musical underscore contains the themes that are interwoven throughout the score. While Arnold does include a heavier use of electronics in this score, he does a good job in balancing out electronically-drive cues with those that primarily consist of the orchestral arrangements. And even in the case of the electronic music, there is still a strong musical backing from the orchestra. In the end, the two styles tend to meld together quite well. With so much reliance of the James Bond theme in Tomorrow Never Dies, it is apparent that Arnold decided to hold back some, which is a good call in my opinion. While full-blown performances of the theme don't appear very often, Arnold includes more than enough subtle statements of it in the score to keep the fans happy, and his restraint just makes the theme are that more enjoyable when it finally does appear. Aside from the Bond theme, there is plenty of other thematic work going on in the score, from the complex action music arrangements to the quieter, yet no less simplistic, moments. It is the complexity of the score that I think causes it to work better than Tomorrow Never Dies. Don't get me wrong, I love that score as well, and it will always be one of my favorites, it's just that The World is Not Enough is so much more complex, and a careful listening of the music can be quite rewarding. David Arnold has delivered another triumph for his sophomore effort in scoring for the Bond franchise. While some may have as much admiration for this score as I do, I feel it is one that will grow with time. If you're a fan of the James Bond films and scores, or you've loved what Arnold has done before, be sure to pick this one up. ****1/2 |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 68:01 | |
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