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Skyfall by Adele

 
James Bond theme songs are a genre unto themselves - often overblown, or silly, or somewhat contrived (Thunderball faintly comical though sublime) - the best of them such as the Shirley Basseys, especially the all-time great, 'Goldfinger' - are crowd-pleasing classics, timeless.  Adele has been selected for Skyfall, and, given she was the best-selling British female singer of all time, and the currently most popular, this was the right commercial and artistic choice, rendered faintly ironic by Adele's figure and down to earth humanity, which nicely cut across the sexist imperatives of the Bond opening trailers.  If you live in the UK you have already bought the song today or heard it, likely - it's the top song currently at iTunes.  So what do you think?  Well, it's a little Carly Simon, and a lot Bassey.  That suits this being the Bond 50th year.  It has the usual nonsense lyrics (what is Moonraker for instance?).  I like "you can have my number take my name/ but you can never have my heart" - a sort of quasi-judicial riposte.  There have been jokes about the skyfole/ tumbole pronunciation - but mostly it is a deliciously sweeping and romantic addition to the canon, and, nicely, one of the least aggressive.
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