David Arnold -
The choice of people responsible for the score of the movie was by far less surprising: David Arnold (composer), Nicholas Dodd (conductor, orchestrator) and Robert Playford (sound design, programming), as the proven team, were allowed to set the new Bond to music. For the first time ever, the James Bond signature tune plays a minor role; most of the time, it is merely sampled and partly varied so that it cannot be recognized as such.
This is not all, though: After James Bond has transformed from boor into sissy and fallen in love with Bond girl Vesper, the music also becomes more romantic. In contrast to The World Is Not Enough, in which Arnold had to use paranoia for the sensual Electra theme, the love theme of Casino Royale is devoid of such ambivalence. Instead, it is catchy and enchanting, but it lacks in style, hinting at John Barry in its harmonics and melody. Further pluses: considerable running time of excellent sound quality – but without the (feeble) Bond song by Chris Cornell. There’s nothing to complain about! There was no room left on the disk anyway … Unfortunately the second half of the CD loses in quality: You can feel how Arnold craves for writing another epic, old school action score. The new Bond movies will leave him little room for that. The bottom line: You can tell wonderful stories about Casino Royale and Daniel Craig. The plagiarism of Badelt’s work is blatant (Arnold can normally do better); on the other hand, the reference to Barry is understandable. And if Time Machine served as temp track, he may be excused. If it wasn’t for the slightly incoherent and conventional second half of the album compared to the brilliant beginning, Casino Royale would have to be called by far the best Bond score written by Arnold. Details zum Soundtrack I. Die Musik
I. Die Alben --
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After putting in the CD, the composition immediately begins with its greatest musical steam hammer: “African Rundown” has it rumbling powerfully for seven minutes. The cue was written in the style of Klaus Badelt’s 
