Rating: 4/5
Reviewed by: Ashley Frieze
Buy it now.

Buy it if you can...

It's typical. The longer I agonise over buying a CD, the more difficult it becomes to force myself to buy it... despite the fact that I'll buy other discs I'm less keen on in the interim. By the time I decided I was definitely going to fork out for this CD, it turned out to be rather difficult to get hold of. I believe that Streets Online (link above) can supply the disc, but it seemed to be difficult to get from other sources.

However, let March 14th 2002 be forever known as the day I found a copy of Shaken and Stirred in a shop. Not just any shop, though, I found it in one of my favourite 2nd hand CD shops: Steel Wheels, Newcastle upon Tyne.

I have no regrets about buying this disc and quite a few about leaving it so long before I did.

David Arnold was in charge of the Score for Tomorrow Never Dies. On this album, he combines the rich history of Bond music with his skills as arranger and remixer. This is, essentially, an album of Bond Theme cover versions. The cast list is impressive, including David McAlmont (Diamonds are Forever), Aimee Mann (Nobody Does it Better), Pulp (All Time High), Chrissie Hynde (Live and Let Die) and Iggy Pop (We Have all the Time In The World). However, as impressive as the cast sounds on paper, in reality this is a better album for the way it has been put together. The David Arnold touch is very distinctive and he seems to understand the essence of the Bond music in such a way that he makes it sound fresh, yet still familiar.

There's no doubt that this album is helped along the way by the fact that John Barry is an absolute genius... but that's another issue.

The reviews on Streets Online sing this Album's praises. I can quite imagine that I will play this one on a loop in the car and on my headphones at work. This is a feel-good album which shows off the talents of all of its performers.

For more information you could also visit this David Arnold fan site. It was this site which alerted me to the fact that the composer of the Randall and Hopkirk (2000) TV series theme music had also worked on Bond music.

In conclusion - buy this album if you can find it.

15 March 2001
Ashley Frieze