THE W E S T E R BLOG

That's correct, people. LORD OF THE RINGS. COMPLETE SCORE.

Well then, I'm inert... in a optimistic way. And yet addled... in not such a good way. Yes, it was only two days ago that I finally received the 4-disc set of the *COMPLETE*, finally *COMPLETE* with every single last durable bit of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring musical score, even the newer tracks from the Extended Edition, in the mail, which I happened to have ordered from www.amazon.com over a week ago. This, however, was released about one month, one full week, and two days ago.

So, what's the rundown? This 4-disc set is brilliant, yet it pries me to disparage it at the same time. The problem is, the folks behind this set palpably packaged it with blithe, it's just shoddy, because the effort to tidy it up wasn't very swell; it's clearly not very sturdy and liable to breakdown with ease. It may not look that way judging from these images:

But, in real life, the case is quite disparating.

Anyway, onto the actual 4-disc set. The complete score has been divided into 3 seperate, standard music CDs, from the very first choir cue to "The Road Goes Ever On" with lots of familiar orchestrated tracks, such as the "Fellowship" and the "Shire" cues, at the very end of both the Theatrical Edition and Extended Edition's credits. They even sardined in a special DVD audio optical disc accumulation of all 3 CDs - remastered in 24-bit Dolby Digital 5.1 Superior Surround Sound with an output rate of 48 kHz. This is just for a more crisp listening experience, of course. The animated DVD menus are excellent and well constructed, as always. Here's a sample from them:

Not bad, and that's just one of the static menus. Anyway, the whole complete score itself is just utterly blissful to listen to. Howard Shore really knew what he was doing, what an unblemished composer. His music is nothing short of incredible, and the texture of the music alone really suits the film.

All the music heard in the movie is right here on disc, and it simply couldn't be more soundly with unprecendented clarity. It's too bad the packaging was drecked, not to mention that it was overpriced ($50, holy smokes). Every note, and I mean [i]everything[/i], from "The Nazgúl" to "Moría" to "Khaza-dúm" (the latter two being some of my top favorites, just listen to the impact of that fiery Russian chorus).

Just as Peter Jackson's contemporary adaptation of the books is wonderful, this 4-disc set is just as worthy, it's a must-purchase for any LOTR or J.R.R Tolkien fan, but they probably have got it in their clutches, likely a month ago. If the subpar packaging and high price is engulfing you in a shrewd of doubt, don't let it do so any longer. This COMPLETE score is worth it, regardless of its undermining (not so minor) quibbles. Roll on The Two Towers and Return of the King COMPLETE score, which are actually longer-winded scores than this one.

I just can't imagine what the grandiose of it will be, whenever it's finally out of the works and ships, which will *hopefully* (fingers crossed) be later this year, if not next year, but, based on [b]my[/b] preminitions, it really shouldn't take such an interminable amount of time. Still, they will be just as awesome, and count me in.

With that said, for those who haven't given this score a chance, don't riddle yourself with follies - it [u]is[/u] worth it, mark my words.

And, yep, that pretty much wraps up this blog entry, to those who literally care and are actually reading this, on an ending note.