"The finale to the Lord of the Rings trilogy of soundtracks is much like the movie. It takes a lot of characters that you are familiar with and then adds a few more before diving into a major burst of action and then a somewhat too long mellow ending that threatens to diminish the impact of the finale.

As with the previous two movies the soundtrack here must have been a massive undertaking though at least somewhat lessened by the fact that some of the music like the major themes was already written. The soundtrack to this film used a lot of choral effects of course as per the earlier two and this to my ears this feature is a real feature of the trilogies soundtrack.

As noted above there are action sequences in abundance in this film and part of the trick is to make each sequence musically different. What has to be kept in mind is that given this is not the ‘full’ soundtrack its parts may jar a touch for some listeners (though not this one). In fact when it comes to having everything flow along nicely the compiling of this CD (if that is what you’d term it) is quite brilliant. The only complaint I’d have in general with the pacing of the soundtrack is the same problem some critics found with the movie, that it wallowed a bit in sentimentality with too much post-action-finale material. With so many soundtracks you get the ‘big fight scene’ crescendo and then, perhaps, a small epilogue style return to some central theme. On the earlier releases in this series that role was taken by a more ‘standard’ song. Here there are a number of pieces of music after the big bang. As per the film.

Production on this release is as slick as you’d expect given the kind of budget they had to play with. And you’d have to think there were some serious number shifted of these CD’s. There are a range of credits and nice stills from the movie in the booklet and rear cover. Certainly enough to satisfy the fan who enjoys poring over this sort of thing.

A very enjoyable memento of the film experience. In a pinch I’d probably only ever listen to the first movies soundtrack as a stand alone musical experience but there is plenty here for the ardent fan of the movie suite that Peter Jackson hath wrought." - Paul Lawrence, Amazon .com


Track List:
01 "A Storm Is Coming" 2:52
02 "Hope and Memory" 1:45
03 "Minas Tirith" (featuring Ben del Maestro) 3:37
04 "The White Tree" 3:25
05 "The Steward of Gondor" (featuring Billy Boyd) 3:53
06 "Minas Morgul" 1:58
07 "The Ride of the Rohirrim" 2:08
08 "Twilight and Shadow" (featuring Renée Fleming) 3:30
09 "Cirith Ungol" 1:44
10 "Andúril" 2:35
11 "Shelob's Lair" 4:07
12 "Ash and Smoke" 3:25
13 "The Fields of the Pelennor" 3:26
14 "Hope Fails" 2:20
15 "The Black Gate Opens" (featuring Sir James Galway) 4:01
16 "The End of All Things" (featuring Renée Fleming) 5:12
17 "The Return of the King" (featuring Sir James Galway, Viggo Mortensen, and Renée Fleming) 10:14
18 "The Grey Havens" (featuring Sir James Galway) 5:59
19 "Into the West" (performed by Annie Lennox) 5:47


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