Rating: 5
To write a thematically integrated score whilst avoiding sole reliance on the A-Ha theme (and perhaps to prove a point to the producers), Barry worked with Chrissie Hynde to produce two other songs. If There Was A Man was a romantic ballad, whose lovely melody of distant longing would provide the love theme and the romantic treatment of the Viennese location. Where Has Everybody Gone was an exciting, driven rock piece that would double as the film’s action theme.
Given such a strong foundation of themes, it is no wonder this score is breathtaking. Almost all of the tracks building in some way one of the themes, journeying them from establishment through variation to conclusion. Barry writes lushly yet energises the action music with rhythm track that works just as successfully as the moog track on OHMSS.
Daylights is the last great Bond score: a rewarding theatre of musical story-telling that excites and romances, and drags for not one minute of it's hour-plus length.