The closest we’ve gotten to seeing No Time To Die being released into the world is not only through the usage of two theatrical trailers, but also the music video to the title song written and sung by the creative team of Billie Eilish and Finneas. The siblings have created a song that’s already seen its praises sung by the film’s composer, Hans Zimmer, and has already landed them a huge nomination at 2021’s Grammys. But, the young chart toppers also got lucky in another large way with their latest gig: the title of James Bond’s latest adventure was easy enough to write a song around.
As they spoke during Variety’s FYC Fest, Billie Eilish and her brother were on hand to discuss their good fortune that they landed one of the 007 titles that makes for an easier lyrical fix. Only a handful of movies in the James Bond legacy have title songs that don’t contain the film’s name, and as it happens No Time To Die was something that Eilish could work with. In fact, as she reveals below, using the title in the song was Finneas’ idea-- and she cosigned for some very compelling reasons:
Finneas’ whole thing — that I agreed with — was that we have to have the title of the song be the title of the movie. And we have to say it, or it doesn’t hit as hard — it doesn’t do what it needs to do.
While there’s examples of songs that managed to eschew the convention of using a James Bond title in the lyrics, Billie Eilish and Finneas do kind of have a point. It works even better in the case of No Time To Die, as the pulpy quality of the title to director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s entry into the legendary canon of 007 is perfectly suited for Eilish’s mournful melody. Funnily enough, it’s also only the second of out the five Daniel Craig movies to have a song that uses the title, the other being Adele’s opener for Skyfall.
This isn’t to say that Finneas is knocking songs like Casino Royale’s “You Know My Name” or Quantum of Solace’s “Another Way To Die.” The second example is one that he brought up, while speaking alongside his sister/creative partner, during this exact conversation, and even he understands the necessity of a different approach. Restating just how lucky the pair were, Finneas clarified his stance thusly:
We were lucky because the title was ‘No Time to Die,’ and that is a good lyric. I don’t fault Jack White and Alicia Keys for not writing a song called ‘Quantum of Solace.’
No matter if the song has the title of the James Bond film it’s associated with or not, a song like No Time To Die is an absolute treat that sets the tone for the adventure ahead. Billie Eilish and Finneas fulfilled their quest not to let the film’s title go to waste, and the results are so perfect they could be award winning before the film even unfurls in theaters. No Time To Die is scheduled to debut, theatrically, on April 2, 2021; but if you’re looking for something to entertain yourself with in the meantime, the 2021 release schedule is here to make that all the easier. And as always, James Bond will return; it’s just a question of when.
