‘Bond 25’, or No Time To Die as it was later named, went from being a film that couldn’t get its production schedule together, to spamming us with new snippets and advertising on a near-weekly basis.
Earlier this month, there was a new trailer. Now there’s a new, new trailer.
We’re going to have watched the entire film in snippets before it hits cinemas if they continue like this.
All of that aside, there is one very significant aspect of the new, new trailer that’s worth noting: Billie Eilish’s theme song.
Over to the BBC:
The song was released at 00:00 GMT, at the same time as a new trailer for the film, starring Daniel Craig.
Eilish, who turned 18 in December, is the youngest singer ever to record a theme for the franchise.
Take in the new trailer, complete with the new song:
Here’s the full song sans Bond, which Eilish wrote and produced with her brother, Finneas O’Connell:
I’m mostly astounded that she managed to work that godawful film title into the lyrics in a way that doesn’t sound completely stupid. Has anyone figured out what ‘No Time To Die’ actually means? If so, please let me know, otherwise, I’m just going to chalk it up to laziness.
If you’re interested, the reviews of the song are already in, and they’re overwhelmingly positive.
The song’s “downbeat noir is spine-tingling,” according to The Telegraph, whilst The Independent described it as “one of the best we’ve had in some time”.
Even The Guardian seems impressed:
There’s a vague hint of the opening of Diamonds Are Forever about the intro, an interpolation from Monty Norman’s James Bond theme and a guitar part that carries a distinct echo of Vic Flick’s iconic twang. Yet Eilish has stamped her own identity on the song.
The tendency for vocalists tackling a Bond theme is to belt it out, as if in homage to the most famous Bond singer of the lot: Shirley Bassey is known for many things, but subtle understatement isn’t among them. Eilish, however, opts for her standard close-mic approach in which surliness does battle with vulnerability.
Gone are the days of Bond themes more dedicated to double-entendres (“He has a powerful weapon” – The Man With The Golden Gun) about the hero’s sexual prowess than the actual feel of the film.
If Bond turns out to be a woman in the next film, I’ll be interested to see how the change is captured in the theme.
