News > The White Stripes
Jack White + Alicia Keys = Mess
By Johnny Firecloud
Thursday, September 18, 2008
This doesn’t really sound anything at all like your typical Bond theme, but here’s Another Way To Die, by Jack White and Alicia Keys. It’s the theme song for Quantum Of Solace, the next 007 flick.
The song aint bad, but there’s absolutely no need for Alicia Keys here. Jack can plunk those keys just fine, and it’s not like Keys is wailing or tearing out some sick-ass piano solo. She moans awkwardly along with Jack’s fuzzed-out mini solo, and her vocals only add shades of harmonic flavor to the mix. It’s not like there’s some kind of sex magic happening between the two- the song really just comes off like a muddy combination of two big (and not altogether compatible) sounds.
I’m a big fan of just about everything Jack does, but overall, this just feels a bit… awkward. I could even see it being an Icky Thump throwaway.
A curious little bit of related trivia: an instrumental version of the song was recently used in a Coke Zero ad, since the clever ad wizards over at the gut-rotting beverage company have rebranded the drink ‘Coke Zero Zero Seven’ as a promotional tie-in for Quantum Of Solace. White, apparently not a fan of being co-opted by beverage companies, had a fit. Jack expressed his disappointment in a prepared statement, saying that the song was ”not for Coca Cola.”
It makes one wonder about the source of Jack’s outrage, however, seeing as though he wrote this song specifically for Coca Cola just a couple years ago:
It never aired in the States, but I hear it made the rounds in Australia at one point. Either way, weird and unfitting for the franchise as it is, the Bond theme is better.
Another interesting side note: Never one to miss an opportunity to be a giant bleeding cock, Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher is currently telling any British press person who will listen that it’s a “pisstake” that a movie about a great British spy is being soundtracked by “a bunch of fucking Americans.”
Maybe he’s got a point, though. I wouldn’t want the Captain America theme song to be written by some crumpet-eating batty boy.
Alicia Keys is in there? I obviously wasn’t listening hard enough, I’ll pay more attention next time.
It’s not terribly British, is it. But then I guess hottie Chris Cornell wasn’t either, so it’s not the artist’s nationality. It’s lacking a little style and sophistication, and the strong Alpha Male component of arrogance. It doesn’t seem to carry the ‘power attitude’ for me. I mean come on, it’s Bond – in his mind he’s god, and Jack just doesn’t convince me of that. It’s got to follow You Know My Name and … well…. it doesn’t, really.
Sorry Jack babe, you know I love you but, not this time. Oh and don’t go dissing crumpets, Mr Firecloud, they are fantastic with hot butter and golden syrup. Magic.
Sucks.
[...] On the rising confidence of the metronome-centered Jack Killed Mom, Lewis admirably channels a little bit of Loretta Lynn. In fact, the song could really hit a hard stride if one Mr. Jack White were to step in on the six-string, and hell, maybe even sing a couple bars. Come to think of it, Jenny Lewis and Jack White seem like they’d be a hell of a collaboration. Certainly a damn sight better than what he did with Alicia Keys, but that’s another story. [...]
These two could do SOO much better. It sounds like Jack White recorded his half at his place, and Alicia Keys recorded her parts at her place, and then some moron threw the two together in a couple hours.
I am ready for Jack White to fuck off already for good now. Enough is enough.