Adele's "Skyfall" set a new standard for modern-day Bond themes, reaching "Goldfinger" levels of good. But now that Spectre's on the way we have Sam Smith's "Writing's On The Wall." So how does it hold up to Adele's Oscar-winning track and the legions of Bond songs before that?
"Writing's On The Wall" is one of the rare Bond themes that doesn't share its name with the title of the film it accompanies. The song is less about a nefarious organization, SPECTRE, and more about romance. In the song Smith sings, "For you I have to risk it all / ‘Cause the writing's on the wall."
Smith told NPR, "I tried to put myself in the shoes of Bond." As for the lyric, "how do I live, how do I breathe? When you're not here I'm suffocating," Smith said he "wanted a touch of vulnerability from Bond, where you see into his heart a little bit."
So "Writing's On The Wall" has everything you've come to expect from a Sam Smith song — beautiful vocals, lovelorn agony — with all the sweeping grandeur of what we associate with Bond. But, alas, it's not quite as catchy or as instantly iconic "Skyfall."
Reaction to the song has been all over the place. The Guardian, for instance, slammed the song as "the kind of thing that X Factor contestants have a crack at." The Telegraph, on the other hand, called it both "intimate and epic."
You can listen below and form your own opinions. Spectre comes out November 6.
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