Under the Covers with James Bond - "The World is Not Enough"
The last James Bond film of the 20th century featured a curious blend of new and classic when it came to the theme song. "The World is Not Enough" was composed by David Arnold with lyrics by Don Black, the man behind the words of such Bond classics as "Thunderball," "Diamonds are Forever" and "The Man with The Golden Gun" (he also wrote k.d. lang's closing theme to Tomorrow Never Dies but that's a story for another day). Performed by alt rockers Garbage, the song blends the band's post-grunge and trip hop aesthetic with orchestral elements to create a melodramatic theme, which gets even more interesting when a unique trio of artists set their sounds to it.
Here is your mission briefing. Ears only, 007.
The first cover comes from the Mister Bond - A Jazzy Cocktail Of Ice Cold Themes album, which yielded the excellent rendition of "Tomorrow Never Dies" we heard previously.
More seriously intoned than its predecessor, this is another strong example of how covering a familiar piece of music in a unexpected way can sound even more interesting. Also, props on the use of xylophone.
I was hoping to find another example of an over the top Bond cover from the far flung frozen land of Finland of this song, and I came close, with a symphonic metal band from Poland called NeraNature
This cover comes from NeraNature's debut album, Foresting Wounds. Released just last year, this song is a good example of the sound of their original material, so if you like the grandiose crunch and metal-cum-opera vocals of Nightwish and Within Temptation, give NeraNature a listen.
Things get even more genre bending with the last cover of "The World is Not Enough", performed by Müslüm Gürses.
Folk singer Müslüm Gürses translates the song into Turkish, changing the name to "Bir Ömür Yetmez (A Life Is Not Enough)" and performs it with his arabesque signature, resulting in one of the more exotic sounding James Bond theme covers we have heard yet. This is also easily the most umlauts used in a single paragraph ever on this blog.
The music of James Bond will return in Die Another Day.
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