Is there a faster route to pop hubris for the modern songwriter than the chance to write a James Bond theme? All people think they can do it, but survey the list of recent submissions – Madonna’s Die Another Day, Garbage’s The World Is Not Enough, Chris Cornell’s You Know My Name – and it becomes clear that writing a Bond classic to order is no mean feat. In fact, it might be nigh on impossible.

The problem, of course, facing any new Bond theme is that it is competing with songs that have had decades to take root in the public memory.

Under the guidance of the Bond theme maestro John Barry, songs such as You Only Live Twice, Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever radiated qualities that seemed to echo those of Bond himself: mysterious, suave and frankly filthy. For Barry, it was a case of bastardising the Stan Kenton records to which he had grown up, then alloying them to the pop mores of the day.

When Barry eventually abdicated the Bond job, he publicly passed the baton on to David Arnold – but he has struggled to confer anything beyond a stale air of pastiche on the franchise. Perhaps it is in acknowledgement of that fact that Arnold has settled for composing the score of Quantum of Solace. As well as singing its theme (with Alicia Keys), Another Way To Die was written and produced solely by Jack White. A smart choice?

Having applied his compositional talents to the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, Loretta Lynn and, lest we forget, a rather ace Coca-Cola jingle in 2006, you would bet on White not only to conjure a decent new theme but to fix what was wrong with the old ones too.

Explore Music

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

Editor's choice

• Burning Bush with W
• Greatest movie partnerships
• Nicole Kidman returns to Australia