The last James Bond film was in 2021, and they have yet to confirm who will play the titular character in the eventual reboot, but that hasn’t stopped London band Black Bordello from imagining what their theme song might be on new single “Numb-Lock.” From the moment vocalist Sienna Bordello steps into the frame in the empty space between the high, plinked piano notes and the low bass notes to sing, “I don’t even have to do black magic on you,” you can already imagine the song playing underneath a highly stylized sequence of the beloved spy series.
As a vocalist, Bordello is as captivating a show-person as Muse’s Matthew Bellamy, belting out tenor notes with surprising power, while also sprinkling in a dash of Kate Bush circa 1982’s The Dreaming in the way she commands “Get out get out GET OUT GET” near the song’s emotional middle.
The song does walk the very thin tight rope between dramatic and histrionic, but then, that’s the norm for all James Bond songs. The song’s architecture doesn’t support Sienna Bordello because the rope turns out to be too thin, overflowing with ideas–chamber harmonies, jazz flourishes, rock drum solos–that the song constantly threatens to collapse underneath her.
Take a listen to “Numb-Lock” below:
Written by Marshall Gu
