Casino Royale (CD, Nov-2006, Sony Classical)

"Casino Royale" is a great Bond film indeed. But there are two rather sad low points, 1) Chris Cornell's title song "You Know My Name" (co-penned with David Arnold, composer of the score), and 2) David Arnold's score, but just to a certain degree.

I have very little to say in favor of the song. The theme is incorporated in the score as it should be the case with every Bond song, IMO. But I really find the song being dull, most unmemorable. Ugly, if you like. And this goes for the title sequence in the movie as well, to a certain degree.

David Arnold got lots of bashing for his last Bond score, "Die Another Day". Too loud, too much use of electronics, too much of the same tricks he established with his first Bond film, "Tomorrow Never Dies". But if you know Arnold's "Godzilla", you also know where his Bond sounds come from. To a quite important degree, I would say. Especially with "Godzilla", I've learned how much inspiration the composer drew from his earlier work to do something appropriate for "Casino Royale", which is certainly not a bad score, of course. But, you know, John Barry - well, I won't go into this any further...

The chase sequence, "African Rundown", is impressive, very muscular music and most fitting for that part. I also found the teaser music very good. So it's a pity you must download that track from iTunes in order to get it. And this leads me to the word that sums up the soundtrack album release, it's a MESS.

1) The title song is not on the soundtrack CD (as bad as it might be - see Madonna's - it should be on every soundtrackalbum from a Bond film.
2) The iTunes trick: some parts are not featured on the CD, which is normal. Now comes the trick. These parts can be downloaded, the song can be downloaded, everything can be downloaded, but you can't find a CD release with the complete program...

It's almost a year the film came out, I'll be happy to see it again. I can't remember when I've listened to the CD the last time. Somehow, that's telling, isn't it?