Music - Quantum of Solace

Credits
Music By: David Arnold
Orchestrated & Conducted By: Nicholas Dodd
James Bond Theme: Monty Norman
Song Written By: Jack White & Alicia Keys
Song Performed By: Jack White & Alicia Keys
Album Label: J Records
Single Label: Third Man / J Records / XL
Highest Chart Position: 1 (Finland)

Additional
Cholo Soy (Jaime Cuadra), Regresa (Jaime Cuadra), El Provinciano (Jaime Cuadra), Puccini's opera Tosca.

History
David Arnold, who composed the scores for the previous four Bond films, said that Forster likes to work very closely with his composers and that, in comparison to the accelerated schedule he was tied to on Casino Royale, the intention was to spend a long time scoring the film to "really work it out". Arnold was confirmed on the 22nd James Bond film in October 2007. He also said he would be "taking a different approach" with the score. Arnold composed the music based on impressions from reading the script, and Forster edited those into the film.

Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse worked on a demo track for the film, but Ronson explained Winehouse's well-publicized issues in the preceding weeks made her "not ready to record any music" at that time. It was announced Jack White of The White Stripes and Alicia Keys would collaborate on "Another Way to Die", which is the first duet in Bond music history, on 29 July 2008. They had wanted to work together for two years beforehand.

 


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Above: Cover artwork for the CD single release of "Another Way To Die" (UK)

The song was recorded at Sputnik Sound Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tennessee; White played the drums while Keys performed on the piano. The Memphis Horns also contributed to the track. White's favourite Bond theme is John Barry's instrumental piece for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and he watched various opening credit sequences from the series for inspiration while mixing the track.

The soundtrack was released by J Records, Keys' record label, though Keys appears on only one track. The track listing follows the order of the music's use within the film, with the exception of the title song being moved to the end of the album (in the film, it appears immediately after track 1). It is presented in the full-length single-release version, rather than the shorter mix heard over the film's opening titles. One notable omission is the fully orchestrated James Bond Theme, which features, as it did in Casino Royale, only at the film's conclusion, but this time over the traditional gunbarrel walk-on-and-shoot as well as the start of the end titles. Another omission is Arnold's instrumental closing theme that follows it, playing over the remainder of the credits and entitled Crawl, End Crawl within them. This track was later made available on iTunes. Other tracks listed are heard in the film (but not on the album) during scenes such as Dominic Greene's charity fundraising party Jaime Cuadra - Cholo Soy, Jaime Cuadra - Regresa, Jaime Cuadra - El Provinciano; and Puccini's opera Tosca forms the backdrop to a key sequence. Vesper's Theme from Arnold's Casino Royale soundtrack reappears at key moments in the film; it may be heard on the album in tracks 12, 15, 18 and 23.

"Another Way To Die" was released by White's label Third Man Records as a limited edition of 6,000 copies in the U.S. on September 30, 2008, and on October 20, 2008 in the United Kingdom. It was also released as a downloadable song for the video game Guitar Hero World Tour on November 7, 2008. An instrumental version of the song was also used in a Coca-Cola commercial, as Coca-Cola Zero was a promotional partner in the film.

Roughly the first two minutes of the song were first played on September 13, 2008 on the radio show Siglo 21 on Radio 3 in Spain. The song premiered on British radio on September 18, 2008 on The Jo Whiley Show on BBC Radio 1. Newsbeat described the reaction from listeners who e-mailed their opinions as mixed. On October 3, 2008 the music video premiered on Channel 4 in the UK.

The pair filmed a video for the song in Toronto on September 6, 2008, whilst Keys was at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting her new film The Secret Life of Bees while White was there with It Might Get Loud, a documentary on the electric guitar. The music video for the song was released on Yahoo! Video on September 29, 2008. The video was announced as a nominee for Best Short Form Music Video at the 51st Grammy Awards.

On October 5, 2008, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number twenty-six on downloads alone, and peaked at nine. Also, it became Keys' first chart-topper in Finland, and charted inside the top ten in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway. In Canada on the issue of October 18, 2008 it debuted at number fifteen on the Canadian Hot 100 based on a large number of downloads. In the the United States it debuted at number eighty-one on the Billboard Hot 100 on the issue of November 29, 2008. In Australia the song made its way into the top forty, peaking at number twenty-nine the week of December 1, 2008. "Another Way to Die" was the first James Bond theme song to feature on a Triple J Hottest 100 playlist, compiled almost every year since 1989; in 2008 the song was ranked the eighty-seventh most popular.

 
Chart Peak #
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 29
Ö3 Austria Top 40 2
Belgian Ultratop 50 Singles 10
Belgian Ultratop 40 Singles 20
Canadian Hot 100 15
Czech IFPI Airplay Chart 65
Danish Single Chart 7
European Hot 100 Singles 12
Finnish Single Chart 1
French SNEP Singles Chart 98
German Singles Chart 8
Greek Singles Chart 8
Irish Singles Chart 12
Japan Hot 100 Singles 49
Norwegian Singles Chart 4
Portuguese Singles Chart 2
Slovak IFPI Airplay Chart 80
Swedish Singles Chart 12
Swiss Singles Chart 4
Turkey Top 20 Chart 14
UK Singles Chart 9
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 81

The song was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video at the 2009 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Song at the 2008 Critics' Choice Awards. The song won Best Original Song at the Satellite Awards 2008.

Composer David Arnold's soundtrack was nominated in the Best Original Film Score category at the 54th edition of the Ivor Novello Awards, but lost to "There Will Be Blood".

Soundtrack Listing
1. Time To Get Out (03:28)
2. The Palio (04:59)
3. Inside Man (00:38)
4. Bond In Haiti (00:35)
5. Somebody Wants To Kill You (02:17)
6. Greene And Camille (02:13)
7. Pursuit At Port Au Prince (05:58)
8. No Interest In Dominic Greene (02:44)
9. Night At The Opera (03:02)
10. Restrict Bond's Movements (01:31)
11. Talamone (00:34)
12. What's Keeping You Awake (01:40)
13. Bolivian Taxi Ride (00:49)
14. Field Trip (00:41)
15. Forgive Yourself (02:26)
16. DC3 (01:15)
17. Target Terminated (03:53)
18. Camille's Story (03:58)
19. Oil Fields (02:29)
20. Have You Ever Killed Someone? (01:32)
21. Perla De Las Dunas (08:07)
22. The Dead Don't Care About Vengeance (01:14)
23. I Never Left (00:40)
24. Another Way To Die (04:23)

Total Time (Official Album): 61:06

"Another Way To Die" Credits

Musicians
Alicia Keys - vocals
Jack White - vocals, drums, guitar
Jack Lawrence - baritone guitar, bass
Laura Matula - piano
Wayne Jackson - horns
Jack Hale - horns
Tom McGinley - horns
Lindsay Smith-Trostle - cello
Lyndsay Pruett - violin, five string violin
Michael Rinne - double bass

Production
Jack White - producer, mixing
Vance Powell - engineer
Mark Petaccia - assistant engineer
Nathan Yarboro - assistant engineer
Josh Smith - assistant engineer
Vlado Meller - mastering
The Third Man - design
Rob Jones - design