Hans Zimmer – No Time to Die Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Review]

There’s nothing quite as special as a superb film score from a talent film composer, and while we’ve got a plethora of top talents working across the Globe right now, including the likes of Michael Giacchino, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Alexandre Desplat and Benjamin Wallfisch, there’s one artist who’s at the top of his game right now: Hans Zimmer. With an already remarkable filmography to his name, with scores for Dune, The Dark Knight trilogy, Gladiator, and Interstellar to name a selection, he certainly doesn’t appear to be dropping any standards at all.

No Time to Die is a unique James Bond film, if you’ve not seen it, I won’t dive into spoilers (and our review is here), but there’s something even more poignant and powerful than usual for 007 on this time out, and when you’ve got the backing of Hans Zimmer, well – we already know we’re onto a winner!

As well as my newly found admiration for Billie Eilish and this classic Bond track, I do think her early scene is over-produced but recent work is superb, as she’s so much stronger when she’s stripping down the music and finding the heart of the story, and that’s right here in the song. For all kinds of soundtracks, and there are songs and scores, but this punches deep to the heart of No Time to Die.

I’ll be honest, upon hearing those opening tracks – from the iconic, legendary Gun Barrel through Matera and Message from an Old Friend -I got full-deep shivers and a little overwhelmed by the iconic nature of this moment, and these compositions. This isn’t your usual Bond outing, sure there’s the classic, swerving, da da DA DA motif that links every film of the franchise but here it feels somewhat more emotional and affective than usual.

Zimmer knows how to build an orchestra, to construct a narrative through his music that not only echoes but truly elevates. This is why he’s a master and has such an iconic output. As we travel through Daniel Craig’s finale as Bond, there’s no doubt we need to be enthralled by the action but counterweighting is everything here – even though it’s not quite an epic as the likes of WW84, it definitely fits the style.

The slipcase itself it classic black and white Bond, there’s no need for messing around and I don’t see their themes and styles switching too aggressively now. I would have liked to see a swirl of black and white on the vinyl, but it’s still your sturdy 180g and I had no issues on sound quality and so forth. Alongside Zimmer, we get a cameo from Johnny Marr, as the featured guitarist on the album, as well as additional music by composer and score producer Steve Mazzaro.  

It’s iconic, it’s classic and while it doesn’t leap too far out of the standard sleeve excitement, it’s still one you’ll want in your collection if you’re a fan of 007 and Craig’s last outing as the iconic character.

Hans Zimmer – No Time to Die Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is out now from Decca Records: https://amzn.to/3d7i9In

For more Zimmer goodness, head here!