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Adele · S5 E2
Paul Epworth Returns
The man who co-wrote "Rolling in the Deep" helps her build the biggest Bond theme since "Goldfinger." They write it in ten minutes.
2012, Abbey Road Studios, London. Adele stands in Studio One, the largest recording room in the world, while 77 musicians raise their instruments around her and Paul Epworth counts them in from the control room.
Adele and Paul Epworth accepting the Academy Award for Best Original Song, 2013. The songwriter and the producer, side by side on the biggest stage in entertainment. Adele cries. Epworth holds the Oscar like he can't quite believe it's real. The partnership that started with "Rolling in the Deep" in a Notting Hill studio ends here, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Skyfall (The Orchestral Recording)
The studio version was recorded at Abbey Road with a full orchestra conducted by J.A.C. Redford. Epworth built the arrangement to echo John Barry's classic Bond scores: lush strings, staccato brass, a melody in minor keys. The challenge was fitting Adele's intimate vocal into a cinematic framework without losing what makes her voice work. The solution: the orchestra plays around her, not over her.
The Producer
Paul Epworth is thirty-seven when he produces "Skyfall," and his track record is already absurd. He has produced Florence and the Machine's Ceremonials, co-written "Rolling in the Deep" with Adele, and worked with Bloc Party, Friendly Fires, and Plan B. What makes him right for a Bond theme is his ability to build enormous arrangements that never feel bloated.
TAP TO REVEAL: Where was the orchestral version of "Skyfall" recorded?
“"When we started working on it, I played her the chord sequence and she just started singing the melody almost immediately. It was like the song already existed and we were just finding it."”
Abbey Road Studios, London
The studio where "Skyfall" was recorded with a full orchestra, in the same room where John Barry scored the original Bond films.
Which composer's Bond film scores did Paul Epworth study when building the orchestral arrangement for "Skyfall"?
Spectrum (Say My Name), Florence + The Machine
From Florence and the Machine's Ceremonials (2011). Also produced by Paul Epworth, released the same year he was writing "Skyfall" with Adele. "Spectrum" is the theatrical, orchestral side of Epworth's production: massive drums, layered vocals, an arrangement that keeps building until it feels like it might collapse. Hearing it alongside "Skyfall" is hearing the same producer apply the same instinct for scale to two completely different voices.
Spectrum (Say My Name), Florence + The Machine (2011)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Paul Epworth produced this and "Skyfall" in the same period. Florence Welch and Adele are very different singers, but Epworth found the same thing in both of them: a voice that gets bigger when you give it more room, not less.
The Recording
The song wins the Oscar. Adele holds the golden statue and cries on stage in Hollywood. Next episode: the Academy Awards performance, the speech, and the moment the girl from Tottenham stands at the absolute top of the entertainment industry.
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