Song of the Week 10/30/16

     For those who don't know, I've been a James Bond fan for about five years now. I drove myself insane from fangirling when Skyfall came out and finally got to see it (three or four times) when it was televised a year or two later. When I heard about Spectre's release, about a year and a half ago, I was pretty excited, and I remember listening to the theme song when it came out and celebrating the movie's release day on November 6 by putting a poster for it on my iPad's home screen.
     This one, to be exact:

     (Wow, I just noticed the glass is shattered in the shape of the arms on the Spectre logo. That's really dang cool.)

     But somehow, throughout the next year I all but forgot about it. Until two weeks ago when I learned it was coming on TV and I finally got to see it. And I'll have to say, as much as I loved Skyfall, I don't even know which one I love better now because Spectre was amazing as well. I even made this ring for it, which you'll totally get if you've seen the movie:

     (It may look a little rough but things this small are extremely hard to make out of clay.)

     As a lover of music and atmosphere, the opening sequence of a James Bond movie is one of the most important elements to me, because the song can set the atmosphere for the movie. So, I had to defer this one for another week to accommodate for the song I found last Saturday, but here it is: Sam Smith's "Writing's On the Wall", the theme for Spectre.

     The first time I heard this song, I didn't like it, and I didn't hear it again until I was actually watching the opening sequence for Spectre, which was an amazing experience because I recognized elements of the song after having forgotten about it for so long. But that time my mind started opening up to the song a bit more. By the end of the movie it was still in my head, and I had a new understanding of it. I knew there was no way I would've grasped the atmosphere of the song if not for the movie. And in reflecting on that, I learned that the movie can actually set the atmosphere for the song as well.

     This song has a very soft feeling most of the way through, so a lot of the emotion is set mainly by the vocals themselves. Although the lyrics of both verses are different, the melody is the same, and that always creates a nostalgic feeling within the song. It also makes me impressed with the songwriter's job of fitting the syllables of the lyrics into the melody while also expressing a deep yet tangible emotion through them. I like how the strings after the chorus echo the melody of the verse vocals while using the same chord progression, which alternates between one major and one minor chord. It creates a very trapped and dreary feeling and soft-spoken emotion which in my opinion fits very well with the movie.

     With all the other melodies being the same, the chorus is the only part that's really different. And for the most part it's actually softer than the rest of the song, which makes for a very unique feeling. The high pitch and vocal melody that starts off the chorus is absolutely addictive to me. It creates an eerie feeling which carries the aforementioned emotion even farther and gives it a sort of rhythmic, almost lullaby-like twist at the same time. (It might seem weird to say that, but it's there.)

     I'm wanting to learn this song on the piano now. I'm unsure how others may perceive its atmosphere without seeing the movie as well, since for me they go hand in hand. But give it a listen anyway; who knows what it might do to you?