I suppose forty years of Bond is something too good to miss and so Silva have jumped on the band wagon in issuing this 4 CD set of Bond music, with orchestral versions of all the songs up to The World is Not Enough together with a number of score cues for good measure. The first two discs are, unsurprisingly, mainly John Barry save for a brief suite from Dr. No (not great, but not as bad as you might expect) by Monty Norman and an orchestral rendition of Live and Let Die which is a little bit of an oddity. The Barry performances are all fine, although the score cues tend to come out better than the orchestral arrangements of the songs. They certainly aren't as well arranged as they were on David Arnold's Shaken and Stirred album, but considering Silva's recordings are purely instrumental, they manage to avoid sounding like call waiting music arrangements.

The non-Barry music is largely represented quite favourably and, as I commented in my Bond Back in Action reviews, give the impression of the scores being really rather good even if they are generally quite poor, such is the case with compilation snap shots. Having said that, For Your Eyes Only sounds like an orchestra on mogodon and a lethargic performance that fails to take off. Only Barry gets a decent number of score cues and again, these are performed with conviction. The final disc slips in quality, despite a great start from Barry's final two scores, The Living Daylights and a marvellous suite highlighting the best of A View to a Kill. Licence to Kill concentrates on the fairly mediocre song with a little of Michael Kamen's score, but Goldeneye is represented by only the song, possibly the weakest to date. The replication of David Arnold's electronics is surprisingly faithful, although the orchestra doesn't seem as comfortable and doesn't come close to matching the bravura original performances, particularly in regard to the best Bond song in years (though sadly not for the opening titles), Surrender.

Depending on when and what you buy, you can feel either duped by, or grateful to Silva Screen. In this case, most of the material has been released on the two Bond Back in Action albums and Silva's collection of orchestral versions of the songs, indeed only the David Arnold entries are newly recorded. If you have the Bond Back in Action albums (the reviews for which have more detailed comment on most of the tracks included here) then there isn't enough new, good material to warrant buying it. However, you may feel that had you waited, you would have got a better deal buying this collection instead. Of course for the novice collector this set is almost indispensable, certainly the most wide ranging selection of Bond music on any compilation. The packaging is a disappointing cardboard box and the CDs are contained in thin card slip cases, both of which are prone to damage and liner notes only extend to brief credits and plot summary for each film. However, as a budget collection it's a great buy.

Rating ~

The track listing can be found here at Silva Screen's official site. Sorry for being lazy, but it's 4 CDs and there are only so many hours in the day...