No Time To Die (Billie Eilish, 2020)

I love this song. 

Regardless of its relationship with the movie, I cannot stop listening to it.

I am a fan of surprises in the James Bond franchise. In recent memory, there have been few surprises in terms of the people warbling over the titles. When Billie Eilish was announced, I thought we were in for something new.  

When the song was released last year, I went on Youtube to listen to it. I remember my initial reaction was a bit negative. It sounded like an extension of Adele and Sam Smith's songs - slow, dark and mournful.

But then I listened to it again. And again. And eventually I had to buy the song because I kept replaying it so many times. It really caught me.  

Overall, I love the slow burn of it. It is incredibly well-paced. There is no point in the song where it hits a dead spot or goes on too long. And when it finally crescendos, it ends. 

The song is remarkably dense and yet it clocks in at just over four minutes.

Every time I listen to it, I dig its minimalism - the sprinkle of muted trumpet and vibes - and the atmosphere it creates. There is so much space in the song that it forces you to concentrate on the details. 

I love the piano part, particularly the section under the line ‘Fool me once...’, and the way Johnny Marr’s guitar weaves in and out with Eillish’s vocal.

While there is a vague similarity to the last couple songs, ‘No Time To Die’ manages to sound Bondian without coming off like a pastiche - which makes the overt quoting of the familiar theme feel unnecessary. I like the muted trumpet piece early in the song, but  that final guitar strum really sticks out. 

Having over a year to listen to the song, I really like what the song is doing thematically, in terms of Bond’s masculinity. 

Following the trend of Craig’s tenure, Eilish appears to be singing from Bond's perspective. 

Back in 2006, Chris Cornell was chosen to sing the song because Composer David Arnold wanted a more masculine voice to represent this new Bond. More recently, Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s On The Wall’ also took the position of Bond’s inner voice, While economics probably played a major part in their hirings, the presence of a queer non-binary person (Smith) and a cis woman (Eillish) as Craig-Bond’s musical inner voice feels like a thematic evolution that the films have yet to replicate. 

Now for a tangent: One of my favorite aspects of Casino Royale was the way it re-positioned Bond in terms of his physicality and sexual prowess, two key traits associated with Bond’s masculinity. A key example is after his near castration in the torture sequence. In recovery, Bond says to Vesper, “Whatever I am, whatever is left of me, I’m yours.” This has been pointed out by many people already, but in essence, Bond is saying that he is not defined by his phallus. Another scene I always point to is the earlier scene where he sits in the shower with Vesper and gives her comfort. There is an empathy to the character, and a willingness to evolve, particularly in his relationships with women, that I had never seen before. 

After Casino, I have felt that reshaping of Bond’s masculinity has never really progressed. To tie it back to the song, I hope that Billie Eillish’s song represents a musical extension of Craig-Bond’s portrayal in No Time To Die.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

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