The Spy Who Loved Me [Import, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack]

So what is up with The Spy Who Loved Me?
Basically, it is the same old thing. Only better sounding.

You might think the soundtrack would contain the actual music from the movie: The title song and the end titles as it was heard in the film (right now you can only transfer it from DVD), the music used for Bond and Anya on a boat to Cairo, Bond and Anya following Jaws into the Egyptian ruins, the underwater battle between the Espirit Lotus and Stromberg's frogmen, the battle on board the Liparus, Bond wetbiking to Atlantis, Atlantis' destruction, the chase between Bond, Anya, Jaws, and Naomi (and the cue used for the Lotus' entrance into the water).

Instead we get THIS.

Perhaps there is some kind of contractual agreement (or disagreement) here between Marvin Hamlisch and the powers that be; you can remaster The Spy Who Loved Me all you can....but nevertheless it is NOT the soundtrack that the movie, AND the fans deserved.

I consider the main title song "Nobody Does it Better" as one of the finest Bond-songs. "Bond 77" (My favourite track) is just stunning. Ride To Atlantis is a very relaxed and cool cue. The instrumental version of "Nobody Does It Better" contains a nice saxophone solo and "The Tanker" is just brassy and powerful. I love the moment (I think it is at 3:45)where Derek Watkins (the principal trumpet player) just screams on his trumpet! Simply fantastic!

The Egyptian source music is very good actually. And cues like Bond 77 and The Tanker sound very Bondish, which is good of course.
"The Spy Who Loved Me" soundtrack is really underrated. Of course it's not so good as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" or "The Living Daylights", but that don't means this score is bad. If you're a fan of Bond-music, you should give it a try.

The soundtrack's saving graces are the wonderfull title song "Nobody Does It Better", sung by Carly Simon, and the "The Pyramid". However, I was also disappointed in the CD itself. Unlike many of the recently reissued Bond soundtrack, there wasn't any bonus tracks included here. I'm sure that I would given this a higher rating, had there been additional cues as part of the package-perhaps it could have balanced out the disco sound a bit

The only "bonuses" here are remastered sound and another set of well written liner notes from film music historian Jeff Bond for a little persrpective on things. The only reason I am going to keep this one is for the sake of completeness-even then-it's a stretch rest assured. The CD has 11 tracks with a running time of (just) 36:20.