For years, people wondered why Lana Del Rey was never invited into the “James Bond universe.” As it turned out, however, Del Rey had tried to enter that universe with a song called “24,” which ultimately appeared on her 2015 album, Honeymoon (the same year that Spectre, the fourth James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig, came out). This was the track that Del Rey, as it was eventually revealed, had submitted for consideration as the movie’s theme song (funnily enough, Radiohead, a band that would go on to sue Del Rey for copyright infringement because her 2017 track, “Get Free,” bore too many sonic similarities to their hit, “Creep” [no small irony considering where Radiohead pulled the tune from], also submitted two songs for consideration that were rejected).
And yes, when one listens to “24,” it’s obvious that it was written with a Bond motif in mind, both musically and narrative-wise. Yet, in December of 2015, Del Rey made it seem more as if she hadn’t tried submitting at all because she “wasn’t asked.” This per an NME interview during which she also stated, “I love all of the Bond music that’s been put out over the years and I love soundtracks in general [something that’s been made abundantly clear over the course of her career]. There are a couple of songs on [Honeymoon] that have a Bond feel like ‘24’ and ‘Swan Song.’” That they do, with “24” speaking to “spy life” in many ways—particularly the pratfalls of trying to love one (e.g., “There’s only twenty-four hours in a day/And half as many ways for you to lie to me, my little love/There’s only twenty-four hours in a day/And half of those, you lay awake with thoughts of murder and carnage”).
“Swan Song,” too, also bears the aura of speaking on two ill-fated lovers, with one of them (Del Rey, obviously) being more optimistic about their inevitable inability to ride off into the sunset (as indicated by the opening verse, “Why work so hard when you could just be free?/You got your moment now, you got your legacy/Let’s leave the world for the ones who change everything/Nothing could stop the two of us/Let’s just get lost, that’s what we want”).
However, it was in 2024 (or “24,” to be more fitting), while being interviewed at the Ivor Novello Awards, that Del Rey seemed to feel comfortable enough to admit that “24” was both written expressly for Spectre and turned down by the producers in favor of Sam Smith’s far shittier “The Writing’s on the Wall.” But Del Rey remained hopeful that it could still be in the cards for her to record a song for the franchise, adding, “One day, maybe…” That day, as it turned out, would be April 16, 2026, with the official release of Del Rey’s “First Light.” And while it might not be for a Bond film, it’s for something inarguably even more tailor-made for Del Rey: a video game. Titled the same (well, practically—the game goes by 007 First Light) as the song, and based on Bond’s origin story as he embarks on the journey to gaining 00 status.
And maybe the rejection Del Rey received eleven years ago was well worth it to gain a song that is undeniably even more sweeping and grand than what “24” had to offer. Of course, it helps when David Arnold (who previously worked his musical magic on the Bond films The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) is scoring the song. Along with The Flight composing. The effect of this collaboration makes “First Light” one of Del Rey’s most cinematic tracks yet (even if for a video game). From the subtle opening notes that sound almost like a kind of Morse code in “beeping” form, the song instantly makes its attachment to the world of espionage known. Complete with the immediate sense of fatalism Del Rey depicts with the initial verse, “Run into the sun like/It’s the first light of day when you wake/Is it real or is it fake? [the question of the current epoch]/Your strength is your youth, just use it and follow the music play/Promise you’ll never change.”
Though, naturally, Bond did change (apparently going from a Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible-looking dude, as the video game presents him, to…Daniel Craig). For he didn’t become the arrogant, self-assured version of himself seen in men like Roger Moore and Sean Connery without making a few mistakes as his twenty-six-year-old self—this being his age in 007 First Light.
To convey the form of hubris that goes hand in hand with youth, at the fifty-five-second mark, the music bursts forth, crescendoing as Del Rey sings the chorus, “Can’t say I’m surprised to see you running towards the sun/Like a moth to a flame [though it feels like the unspoken analogy here is also Icarus]/People try and stop you, all the fates just watch you/Dying just to know whether you’ll play your life like a game.” Needless to say, that line has a meta quality to it for many reasons. Not just because this is a song for and within a video game, but because Del Rey herself has laughed off certain facets of existence (namely, fame) as nothing more than a game. As evidenced by her 2021 song, “Dark But Just a Game,” during which she reminds herself, as much as anyone else, “Don’t even want what’s mine/Much less the fame/It’s dark but just a game.” The latter line can be applied to 007 First Light as well. Though there are many players who will have to occasionally stop and ask themselves, “Is it real or is it fake?”
Either way, Del Rey must say of young Bond, “Can’t say I’m surprised to see you running towards the sun/It’s the first light of day/All the fates just watch you/Dying just to know whether you’ll play your life like a game/Will you?/Will you?/Will you?/Will you play?” If that question is aimed at Del Rey fans vis-à-vis playing this song repeatedly, then the answer is a resounding yes. And while some might interpret Del Rey being given “merely” a video game version of Bond’s story to soundtrack as somehow being a “snub,” one could easily point out that it’s actually a more impactful way to disseminate the song. Not to mention a more “youthful” one, to boot.
And since the franchise is currently scrambling to drum up interest in James Bond from subsequent generations, this synergistic marriage between Del Rey and, well, video games makes plenty of sense. Just as it does for her generally Bond-esque music to at last actually appear in a Bond project. For it’s as if she’s speaking to herself regarding this matter when she sings, “Baby, come on/You know what you’ve always wanted to do.” And that, of course, is provide a Bond theme.
