Bond Fans Unite!

The Die Another Day soundtrack was released on November 12, 2002 and the score by David Arnold was well received by a very large proportion of Bond fans. However, much to our chagrin, a comparatively small amount of it was available: only 46 minutes in total. In place of the rest of the score we were given “extras” most of which featured on the DVD, such as Madonna’s music video, a feature on the making of the video and some picture galleries. Alongside those were online Bond Bonus Extras(!) that apparently didn’t work very well. Less than impressive for the soundtrack of the 40th Anniversary film. We assumed the lack of Arnold’s music was due to a similar problem that the Tomorrow Never Dies score suffered; sacrifice at the hands of a tight post-production schedule.

However, in 1999, two years after the release of the film, the Tomorrow Never Dies score got a second volume, free from any extraneous tracks such as title songs or promotional remixes of the James Bond Theme (save for a fascinating audio interview with John Burlingame), just pure David Arnold.

What more could we ask for?

That is something all Bond music/David Arnold fans want to see happen again; the release of a second volume of the Die Another Day score. We realised (on seeing the film after listening avidly to the CD mere days before) that only a small portion is available for Bond music fans on the soundtrack CD, and that a vast amount of Arnold’s atmospheric, contemporary score remains unreleased.

What happened to the bombastic, almost martial version of the James Bond Theme that accompanied the opening surfing stunt of Die Another Day? Or the timeless, impossibly cool sound of the Bond Theme overlayed with contemporary drum samples and the opening electronic sounds from Doctor No in the cue that oversees Bond’s escape from the MI6 Medical Ship in Hong Kong harbour? Just two of many superb pieces of Arnold’s music in Die Another Day yet to see a CD release.

CommanderBond.net asks those responsible for the release of the Die Another Day soundtrack to compile and release a second volume of the score for the 40th Anniversary film. A petition was set up roughly a year ago by level007- one of our forum members- and we at CBn feel it needs more signatures before we can present this to Warner Bros. Records or MGM.

So, please, support the cause by signing the petition. As of now we have 573 total signatures. If you have already signed the petition we thank you, however, if you have not and would be genuinely thrilled by a CD release of the rest of Die Another Day‘s music, we stress that you do as soon as possible.