I’m impressed by how Billie Eilish and her co-writer/brother Finneas O’Connell managed to craft a James Bond theme song that feels like Billie Eilish music and Bond music at the same time. Bond producer Barbara Broccoli made a daring call to hire them. It paid off when they came up with ‘No Time To Die’ (listen below).

Steven Lipson, long one of my favorite producers, helped Finneas, a great producer himself, with the production and Hans Zimmer did the strings. So they had expert support in the arrangement/production area, though it still sounds more like Finneas than anyone. But Billie and Finneas wrote the song.

Focusing on the songwriting, what they did was ingenious. The original Bond theme, written by Monty Norman and played billions of times, has several signature riffs and melodies; none more characteristic than the moody and mysterious chord progression that simply plays the notes B to C to C# to C over a bass pedal on E.

Anyone can play this on guitar, it’s so simple. Yet it immediately screams, “Bond!” The notes moving over the E in the bass translate to these chords: ||: Eminor C | A7/C# C :||

The vocal melody of ‘No Time To Die’ is in Billie Eilish’s style; it’s not spectacular but it maintains mood and motion effectively throughout. What’s brilliant is the way she and Finneas called back to the original ‘Bond’ chords.

Strategic borrowing is almost always at the heart of songwriting. And everything suggests something else. In this case that was their job – to do something of their own that also suggested something else; to find the commonalities between their style and the music of Bond.

The song (listen below) starts with an Intro, played lightly on a ‘verby piano (with a Bond-like melody over it):

||: Eminor | C | A | B :|| The ‘Bond’ chords with a V chord added (the B).

In the Verse, the A chords shift subtly between Amajor and Aminor. This ambiguity is the only unusual harmonic touch in their song:

|| Eminor C | A Aminor | Eminor C | A | Eminor C | A Aminor | C | B ||

The Pre-Chorus stays with the now familiar chords:

|| C | Eminor | C | B ||

(The second time through they skip the Pre-Chorus. This is uncommon… and usually indicates to me that the Pre-Chorus is unnecessary, and can and probably should be cut. Here, though, the Chorus seems to work equally well both ways.)

The Chorus has the same 3 chords we’ve been discussing, but now commits entirely to Aminor:

|| Eminor C | Aminor | Eminor C | Aminor | Eminor C | Aminor | Eminor C | Aminor ||

Then, as Billie sings the Title, we’re back to the Intro, but this time played strong, with the powerful ‘Bond’ riff over it:

|| Eminor | C | A | B ||

And ending with a twangy Eminor 6/9 chord on the guitar is a classic finishing touch.

Harmonically, they mostly stay in Bond-world – Eminor, C, and A. They added a few twists with the Aminor and the B; they avoided the C# under the A chord. They ended up with something very much in their style while also keeping the Bond flavor, and (I’m not a Bond scholar) did it more effectively than anyone I can remember. Well played.

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