Ian Fleming's James Bond

One of the best James Bond scores just got a lot better, in this remastered, expanded edition that more than doubles the running time of the original LP or the old CD. John Barry, writing for a new lead actor in the role and a dazzling array of visual set pieces, as well as the most romantic and psychologically complex of all the Bond movies, rose to the occasion, with his best James Bond score ever. The music on the original album was serious enough in its depth and appeal to make that record indispensable, but the remastering of the CD for this expanded edition off of the original three-track and four-track masters (which has also yielded an expanded version of one existing track, "Journey To Blofeld's Hideaway"), gives that music a richness and detail that even devoted fans have never heard this way before. The additional 37 minutes of music is hardly less impressive -in addition to extensive sections of the score (including a gorgeous variation on "We Have All The Time In The World" as an instrumental ("Bond And Draco"), and some action and suspense music that is almost symphonic in nature, it contains cues that were written and recorded but excised from the finished cut of the movie; a bit of the bonus material features re-interpretations of familiar material, but the mastering and the mix are sophisticated enough to allow the listener to luxuriate in the variations and the details of the scoring. In other words, this is a chance to discover and know this music -- the best music in any of the Bond movies -- on a level more rewarding, even for the casual listener, than anyone has ever had before. The extensive annotation is just an added bonus to the audio delights. And calling the CD essential to any collection is an extraordinary understatement.