The absence of a title-song on this soundtrack CD of Casino Royale (though not in the film itself) had me pondering whether the producers had half in mind Dr No, the first Bond film, starring Sean Connery, which it's reported they wished to evoke by casting tough guy actor Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's secret agent. Dr No didn't have a promotional song, though of course it launched Monty Norman's James Bond Theme (included here), which went on to become an integral part of the franchise.

David Arnold tantalises us with motifs from these earlier scores without, it has to be said, coming up with a tune that grips the listener in the way that some of his colleagues have managed. The long opening track, “African Rundown”, a virtuoso piece of scoring brilliantly played, is not untypical in that the parts are greater than the whole. However, Arnold has other varied musical skills to display. “The Switch” (tr 21) is an adroit piece of writing where the composer takes an imposing six-note figure on brass to build an extended cue of high drama. The atmospheric cues are discreetly and imaginatively scored. I liked the new bit of counterpoint Arnold adds to a familiar Bond motif at 1'19" in “Blunt Instrument”. He introduces a piano theme redolent of a night club in the cue “Dinner Jackets”, presumably to accompany the mixing of that ubiquitous dry martini cocktail. And it's another reflective cue at the heart of this soundtrack, “City of Lovers”, where the string-writing wrenches the senses with its melancholy refrain. This is a Bond score, then, that taps a different vein from before.