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Life, as they say, begins at the end of your comfort zone. Taking risks and doing new things is how we grow and develop. It’s also how we build emotional and mental resilience. But there’s something rather safe and comfortable about the recently released title track to the next Bond movie, No Time to Die.
Take Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond. The first theme tune was "You Know My Name," sung by Chris Cornell, who is sadly no longer with us. With his raspy vocals, it was a guitar-based rock song. Macho, cocky and self-referential; it fitted the tone of the movie perfectly.
Next, the Bond producers paired Jack White with Alicia Keys who, together, gave us "Another Way to Die." It was experimental, a little Avant-Garde perhaps, and sort of disjointed (a bit like its movie, Quantum of Solace). But, it was brave and ballsy. It dared to be different and it definitely stepped out of its comfort zone.
Then Adele came along and knocked it out of the park with classic Bond ballad, "Skyfall."
"Skyfall" contained breathless vocals, held with precision, as well as soaring strings and orchestration, with more than a hint of classic Bond music motifs. It was a true Bond ballad and a hark back to Bond songs of yore. So, what did they follow that up with?
Sam Smith and the "Writing’s on the Wall" is a beautiful song, to be sure, and one that not only went to number one in the U.K. charts (the first Bond song to ever do so), but also earned its singer two awards (a Golden Globe and an Oscar).
But, it was another classic Bond ballad, ravishingly replete with soaring strings and orchestration and filled with precision held breathless vocals from first note to last. It also had those little Bond motifs and flourishes, which is exactly what we have with the Billie Eilish offering.
It's an amazing and beautiful song in and of itself but, once again, it’s a classic Bond ballad. Breathless vocals held with the precision, tick; soaring strings and orchestration, tick; motifs and flourishes, and tick.
As Sam Smith sung, “I’ve been here before.”
In fact, play the last three Bond tunes back to back, and they kind of meld into one.
Playing it safe seems to be the name of the game, which is a shame, as it would have been nice to see Daniel Craig both kick off with and go out on a rousing number. The producers of both movie and music could have taken a risk.
However, people don’t always like doing that. Generally speaking people like being comfortable, they like feeling safe and playing it safe. They like sticking with what is known —even when what is known is not serving them as well as what could be.
It happens with mental health.
Some people would rather sit with the familiarity of their mental health condition than risk taking it to therapy. Some people come to therapy, but present with a lesser, non-threatening thing, rather than talk through the big scary thing.
People often get given the tools of psychotherapy but don’t put them into practice through fear of what they will become. They can’t remember what life was like before they got mentally ill. The very idea of being something else disturbs them.
Over the years, I’ve had several people come to me for therapy only to freak out at the slightest of improvements, and then not come back again for weeks or, even, months, and sometimes, not at all.
People get stuck in routines. They want to change, but they don’t do anything to change. They’re stuck in the comfort zone, playing it safe with the familiar.
But life, and change, involve risk. Therapy asks you to do something different, to think a different way, to do things a different way. And that is risky for some, but worth it for all.
Because, as another famous saying goes, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”
