Customer Reviews

Themes from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I wish I had read the other reviews before buying. 78 minutes of meandering through (and maiming) Howard Shore's fantastic work. No focus, no edge to the playing, themes apparently put together at random. The horns are poorly synthesized and sound pretty cheezy. Spend your money on the movie soundtrack. I wish I had.

With the exception of a fleeting melody here and there, this one-disc compilation consists of incidental music(at best) to the Trilogy. Virtually none of the familiar themes and orchcestrations are included, and this disc is best sued as background music for some other activity. It does not hold its own in terms of its muscial quality - or interest.

Too bad I can't give this one no stars. This disk is really bad. The performance is by a bland synthesizer "orchestra" without any of the depth or emotion you can find on the movie soundtracks. I would sell this CD back to the music store where I bought it, but then somebody else might be tempted to buy it. No; this disk is headed for the trash bin.

The title line of this product says Enya (Composer), Roma Enya / Ryan (Composer), Annie / Walsh, Fran / Shore, Howard Lennox (Composer), Howard Shore (Composer), Fran Shore Howard / Walsh (Composer). Had I read the descriptions more closely, I would have seen that the composers were listed in a way that made no sense. Rather, the list merely is composed of the names of the writers, musicians, and composers of the music in Peter Jackson's trilogy, so that someone who is familiar with the music of the trilogy would be deceived into buying this subpar and inadequate product. The trade dress is deceptive enough that it might border on trademark/trade dress infringment of the real stuff.
If you are a fan of the LOTR soundtracks and/or Howard Shore, I would avoid this product and opt for: 1) the official soundtracks of the trilogy; and 2) The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring The Complete Recordings. Let's hope they follow up with the Two Towers and the Return of the King Complete Recordings.

Simply put, this album corrupts Howard Shore's music in the same way the ring tried to corrupt Frodo. The more you listen to it, the more you realize you should have bought the original soundtrack.

Yeah, the music is very good, no doubt about that. I expected the vocals, especially because I wanted the original of Into the West by Annie Lennox, so that was a huge disappointment, but the CD is very good if you are happy with an instrumental version

Bought and returned it with the first few minutes after sliding it into the player. The cover art is nice. As for the, um, muzak, I expected something less...fuzzy. Even the player hated it, spitting it out within seconds after tasting the first track.
If any of the original movie scores rate 5 stars, this rates a solid 10 black holes, IMHO.

Very disappointed--apparently I didn't read the description very well and was highly disappointed to find out this is not an actual compilation of music from the movies.