'007 First Light' Music Proves Doing James Bond Is Easier Done Than Said

Before the world gets a new cinematic James Bond in the form of the 26th official 007 film, hardcore fans are getting a chance to indulge in other facets of the Bond world. Not only do we have a new official Bond book from Kim Sherwood, Hurricane Room, which explores Bond's origins. But, at the same time, the new game 007 First Light has taken the world by storm; both serious gamers and casual fans alike are raving about the game, with most pointing out that this is the best James Bond game since 1997's GoldenEye.

And, one crucial part of what makes 007 First Light such a success is the fact that throughout the game, original, yet authentic Bond music scores every aspect and each step of the adventure. But what makes Bond music, Bond music? Men's Journal spoke to Alexis Smith-who, along with Joe Henson, is one-half of the composing duo-The Flight, to discover the sonic secret of 007 music.

One of the most interesting things about music in specific James Bond films is the idea that not only do the Monty Norman/John Barry themes carry over from film to film, but generally speaking, each film has its own score built around the main theme. For example, in Goldfinger, you'll hear orchestral arrangements of the main theme in various ways throughout the film, which is also true of No Time to Die. Interestingly, sometimes unused main title songs will be echoed in the score, like in Tomorrow Never Dies, when the melody of k.d. lang's song "Surrender" appears throughout the film in orchestral form. The point is, the practice of interpolating Bond theme songs into aspects of a Bond score sometimes begins before the theme song fully takes shape. And even though First Light wasn't a Bond film, the scoring process was just as meticulous, and, in terms of the sheer amount of music, bigger than a movie.

"At the start, they wanted to do a song and that they had a name, they had a name in mind, but they couldn't tell us at that point who it was. But the song hadn't been written," Smith tells Men's Journal. "But we knew that they wanted to do things properly - and they wanted to get a Bond song over the titles, and they also wanted us to be able to use bits of the melody to thread into our score as well."

So, although The Flight did end up using aspects of Lana Del Rey's "First Light" to score aspects of the game, they also had to compose a massive amount of music, because playing a game could take 20 to 30 hours, rather than, say, the 2-hour runtime of a film. "You've always got to have more ammunition," Smith says. But points out that using the full James Bond theme too early in the game wouldn't have worked.

"One of the key things about this game, about it being a re-imagined origin story, is that we were going to be very choosy about when the player gets the Bond semitone or the Bond dum di-di dum dum, theme, the theme everyone knows," Smith explains. "That theme creeps through as the player earns the number you earn the themes."

So, the restraint of familiar Bond themes means that The Flight had to create a lot of new Bond music that also sounded like Bond music. But what is the essence of Bond music? Because the original films borrowed jazz and big band, with sweeping orchestral scores, is Bond music its own genre?

"I think because Bond has been going for so long, it's almost like a snowball that's rolling down a hill," Smith reflects. "When you listened to the first Bond scores, they were pretty jazzy. But that evolved. And, in terms of making new Bond music, it's one of those things that's harder to talk about than actually just do. We wanted to do something new, give it a modern edge that wouldn't date really quickly."

Smith has a point; much of the phenomenon of James Bond is much harder to explain than simply experience. The Bond-ish feeling to music, story, action, and stunts all have a feeling rather than a set formula. But who is best suited to capture those concepts?

Although he jokes about how the developers of First Light hired "two men in their late 40s" to make sure the Bond music was authentic, the truth is Bond belongs to various generations. That includes the generation who played GoldenEye 64 and remembers that iconic pause music, composed by Grant Kirkhope and Graeme Norgate. So, was The Flight worried about topping that much-discussed pause music?

"No, not really," Smith says. And then admits that by the time that game had come out in 1997, he was too focused on making his own music to be into gaming. "I was learning how to write music at the time. I didn't come back to the world of games until later. But that game has legendary status. And like First Light, the thing that was crucial about it is that it was fun to play."

007 First Light is out now, from Amazon, MGM, and IO Interactive on the following platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox ROG Ally X, Xbox ROG Ally, Nintendo Switch 2*, and PC.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 3:11 PM.