Annie Lennox, Howard Shore - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
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Free Music Notes for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Free Music Review: A spectacular soundtrack to a spectacular movie!
Hit: 5 Stars
::Possible spoilers for those who havent seen RotK:: This soundtrack is absolutely amazing! I have heard a lot of soundtracks and this is the best by far. If you were teary-eyed at the end of Return of the King you will definitely be teary-eyed at the end of the soundtrack. It is the most moving soundtrack I've ever heard. Some of the highlights of it are: #2 (Hope and Memory). This is in Rohan, when Gandalf takes Pippin to Minas Tirith. Number 2 ends with a Shadowfax theme where (in the movie) Gandalf and Pippin are racing through beautiful New Zealand countryside. Also I like the end of #4 (The White Tree). It has the Gondor theme with violins in the backround. In the movie, this is where it shows all the mountains and the beacons being lit. I also like #8 (Twilight and Shadow), which is an Arwen part. The music is really sad in that one. Number 11, Shelob's Lair, is really spooky with many sudden tempo changes. Number 13 (The Fields of Pelennor) sort of goes back to The Prophecy in the FotR soundtrack and shows how the two battles, Dagorlad and the Pelennor Fields, are connected. Number 15 (The Black Gate Opens) goes back and forth between the battle at the Black Gate, and Frodo and Sam on the side of Mount Doom talking about the Shire. #15 leads up to #16, The End of All Things (when the Ring is destroyed), where there are a lot of choral parts. Number 17, The Return of the King, is over 10 minutes long but one of the most beautiful tracks on this cd. It has the crowning and wedding of Aragorn, the part where the hobbits go back and ride past grumpy hobbit, and Sam's and Rosie's wedding. Number 18 (The Grey Havens) is where the elves, Gandalf, Bilbo, and Frodo leave and go to the Undying Lands. It is the saddest, most touching one on here, and puts together a lot of the previous themes from the 3 soundtracks. Those are my favorite ones. I definitely recommend buying this soundtrack.Free Music Review: The Journey Ends in Middle Earth
Hit: 5 Stars
The soundtrack for the final installment of this series is by far one of the greatest sounding musical scors ever created. The Return of the King has not yet come to the big screen but it will soon. Frodo, Sam, and Gollum will reach Mt. Doom. Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf will test their might in one final encounter with evil on Pelennor Fields. Merry and Pippin will also find their strength and courage. The album starts innocently enough and leaves own frantically trying to figure out what is happening but in the case of this album that plays perfectly to Howard Shore's image. This album is by far a tour de force in fast paced listening. The War of the Ring reaches its peak and there will be one victor. Thus music in this album does not hold to any of the old themes except for one which is a very welcome sight but I won't spoil it for the reader. A new theme which is being used for the trailer is the them for Gondor which is much more military and epic sounding than the theme of Rohan. For any Tolkien fan, or Peter Jackson fan, or just a lover of anything Lord of the Rings this is a much have. Some of the songs which make this album worth buying is Minas Tirith, The White Tree, The Steward if Gondro, Anduril, The Field of the Pelennor, The Black Gate Opens, The End of All Things, The Return of the King, and The Grey Havens. The music in each album have managed to surpass it predecessor. This is no exception. The series has been triumphant on all fronts and I enjoyed the book first and foremost over the movies. The movies have made a believer out of me and I am as passionate for this series as I am for life itself. It is pure genius and should be considered to be the greatest movies ever made as well for these soundtracks. The music is a movie unto itself. It is epic in every right and amazingly orchestrated. I can't wait for The Hobbit which is rumored for a 2006 releaseFree Music Review: incredible
Hit: 5 Stars
I saw this movie a few days after it was released and I was blown away by it. The music really captured me and only added to the emotion the movie gave off. Every song on the soundtrack can stand alone. Each one is dark, beautiful, mysterious, and compelling at the same time. The last three songs alone are enough to captivate the listener. The first piece of greatness comes on track three...Minas Tirith. This is where the theme is first introduced and it is done so in a grand fashion. The last minute and a half of the song is one entire theme that sums up the movie. This song is similar to A Shadow of the Past on the first soundtrack and The Riders of Rohan on the second. Another standout is the fifth track The Steward of Gondor. I dont have to tell you how incredible Billy Boyd's voice is just read the other reviews. One of the more emotional songs that I'm surprised more people dont talk about here is track fifteen, The Black Gate Opens. The song leads up to an incredible part of the score ( and movie ) where Sam literally carries Frodo up the slopes of Mt. Doom. And then of course there are the last three songs. Track seventeen, The Return of the King is a ten minute adventure that rolls up about five different scenes from the movie into one. Track eighteen, The Grey Havens is my favorite. It is also the most emotional and it is fitting because it is the most emotional scene in the movie as well. Every time i listen to it I get the chills. I keep seeing Frodo leaving and departing from Middle Earth. Sam and Merry and Pippin all crying behind him. It is an extremely touching piece. And the last song is the best of the three vocal songs from the movies. Annie Lennox gives a great vocal performance and the lyircs are reely incredible as well. This album is a beautiful work of art and one that most people sould enjoy very much.Free Music Review: A phenomenal achievement!
Hit: 5 Stars
Howard Shore is sure making a name for himself with his work on "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Shore came from virtual obscurity to become one of the most popular composers today. "The Fellowship" and "The Two Towers" were both stunningly beautiful scores, earning Shore an Oscar. Yet both scores were rather similar to each other, as if they belonged on a single CD. Good news to all film score buffs, the "Return of the King" is quite different than the previous two scores. Shore creates new themes (and uses some of our old favorites such as "The Fellowship" theme), a darker tone, uses diverse instruments, and expertly blends delicate vocals from Renee Fleming, Viggo Mortensen, Sir James Galaway, Ben del Maestro, and Billy Boyd into the music. All of these elements combine flawlessly to make an emotionally powerful and involving symphony on such a grand and epic scale that it literally takes your breath away. Listening to this music helps you to relive the wondrous film experience and, I warn you, it will bring tears to your eyes!
Annie Lennox's "Into the West" at first seems out of place in a fantasy film, with a guitar strumming in the background. Fortunately, it actually ends up working beautifully in the film when it plays during the credits. The lyrics fit the film perfectly; I'm guessing that the song was, indeed, written for the film.
Some of my personal favorites on this CD are "Hope and Memory", "The Steward of Gondor" (Billy Boyd's vocals are astounding), "The Return of the King", "The Grey Havens" and "Into the West", though all are simply divine! Unlike most scores nowadays, you can actually listen to the whole CD all the way through without skipping a song because of the high caliber of the music.
Bottom line: the best score of 2003; a phenomenal achievement in cinema music!
Free Music Review: Howard Shore's Magnificient Score for the Last LOTR film
Hit: 5 Stars
It's truly hard for me to decide which of the scores Howard Shore has composed for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy as the best. Taken as a whole, his compositions have set a new standard for film music, rarely equalled by his closest peers, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams. Indeed, I suspect that Shore has composed more engrossing, more invigorating music for the "Lord of the Rings" than any of Williams' scores for the "Star Wars" saga. Shore has done a splendid job creating scores of Wagnerian and Mahlerian proportions that are also excellent pieces for the concert hall. To his credit Howard Shore has opted to compose more original music here, only barely mentioning his classic themes for the Hobbits, the Fellowship of the Ring, and Rohan. His earlier composed theme for Gondor returns here in several fascinating compositions, most notably "Minas Tirith". And there is a triumphant, yet melancholy theme heard first in "Pelennor Fields" that is the haunting melody behind "Into the West" (Speaking of which, Annie Lennox's vocals are splendid, conveying a fine mixture of bittersweet sadness and regret coupled with hope.). Renee Fleming's singing of Sindarin in several tracks is magnificiently sublime, tinged with much of the same melancholy longing felt in Annie Lenox's rendition of "Into the West". And James Galway's flute playing is among the finest instrumental solos I've heard in all three "Lord of the Rings" scores. My only complaint is that there isn't enough music from the film included on this CD. I hope that a future edition will include all of Howard Shore's glorious music composed both for the films and the extended DVD editions.