UPDATED: Adele's new SKYFALL theme is frankly terrific.

It's no secret that I think that the vast majority of James Bond theme songs are pretty silly.  They mostly range from goofy ("Thunderball"), guilty pleasure ("A View to a Kill") to fun-but-completely incomprehensible ("The Living Daylights") to terrible ("The Man With the Golden Gun") to dishwater dull ("Die Another Day"). So it is with a token amount of shock that Adele's new theme song, revealed in full with lyrics in the above video, is pretty darn good.  The vocals are superb, it makes terrific use of the 007 theme, and it manages to almost exist as a stand-alone contemporary single.  It's a ditty worthy of the better Bond themes ("Nobody Does It Better", "Live and Let Die", "All Time High").  So have a listen as the marketing campaign for Skyfall enters its final stage before the film's UK debut (October 26th) and its US debut (November 9th).  What are your thoughts on Adele's latest contribution to a fifty-year musical tradition?

UPDATED with a new short trailer cut to the song, which works just fine.

Scott Mendelson

Note - In response to comments, yes I am a big fan of Tina Turner's "GoldenEye" theme song, especially as its line 'You'll never know how I watched you in the shadows as a child...' evokes the idea that the musicians penning 007 themes grew up on the franchise.  But it doesn't quite work as a stand-alone single, which is why you never hear it on the radio, hence it's not one of the very very best themes.