‘Skyfall’, Adele’s song for the new James Bond movie is finally out and the reviews are pouring like manna in the biblical desert. There are so many of them, that I’m gonna make a summary for you:
Rolling Stone is pretty happy about it and thinks that ‘Skyfall feels like a quintessential Bond theme of brooding Sixties-throwback balladry with somber chords and explosive, mysterious vocals.’
Entertainment Weekly thinks that Adele is gonna save James Bond's theme, which, according to the author, has been downhill after Tina Turner’ s ‘Goldeneye’: ‘Beyond its lush cinematic sweep, I’m most impressed by how the lyrics manage to work as a classically composed torch song while also evoking what appears to be the inciting incident of the film: Daniel Craig’s James Bond plummeting from a gunshot into the river below.’
The Huffington Post finds the song ‘brassy and soulful’ and perfectly fitting alongside the work of Shirley Bassey.
The Examiner writes that the song ‘brings back memories of classic Bond themes in the past and mixes them together perfectly.’
The Hollywood reporter says the song ‘is every inch a classic bond theme’, and ‘instantly feels like a Bond theme, with the singer's sultry voice set against a minor chord progression’. It is ‘done in big, orchestral style, the mood — like the singer — is all 1960s throwback, back when Bond themes like "Goldfinger" were smooth, seductive and larger than life’, whereas the lyrics ‘offer the classic Bond vibe — apocalyptically dangerous and very sexy’.
I don’t see the point to continue, they all like and love the song, we are back to classic, and the song is gonna save us from bad Bond music. And isn’t the song the essence of what a James Bond movie is about? Conventional theme with big action – as big as Adele’s hair – and non-sense scenario with repetitive explosions, at the image of lyrics in an Adele’s song.
This is exactly what they needed, a femme-fatale sultry voice, a Paul Epworth-produced retro-piece recorded with a 77-piece orchestra at London's Abbey Road studios, which brings about zero surprise.