Soundtrack Review: 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings'

By Jeff Swindoll Dec 19, 2006, 18:38 GMT

Shore has received many honors for his excellent scores for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and this release only builds our appreciation for his epic musical masterwork.

Following in the tradition of the DVD releases, the Lord of the Rings trilogy soundtracks are getting the deluxe treatment.  The Fellowship of the Ring was released some time ago and not it’s time for the Two Towers to get its due.

The set consists of four discs.  The first three are audio CDs with 45 tracks of music spread across them.  The final disc in the set is an audio DVD that has the same 45 tracks in Dolby Digital Surround or Dolby Digital Stereo.  The set contains every lick of Howard Shore’s music for the Two Towers, except maybe the New Line logo audio que (it has one doesn’t it, my memory fails me).

Whatever the case, this is not a Hobbit-sized release.  One guesses the extended cut since the score runs well over three hours.  The music is in a word excellent.  The score also features an extra in the form of “Gollum’s Song” performed by Emiliana Torrini.  The Two Towers, The Complete Recordings was performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Voices, and The London Oratory School Schola and also features other vocal performances by Isabel Bayrakdarian, Sheila Chandra, Elizabeth Fraser, Ben Del Maestro and cast member Miranda Otto. 

The set is housed in an impressive packaging with liner notes by Doug Adams.  One nice section in the notes details the myriad of musical instruments (some rather strange looking and rare) that Shore used to create the score. 

Shore has received many honors for his excellent scores for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and this release only builds our appreciation for his epic musical masterwork.  A release worthy of a spot in any Lord of the Rings fan audio collection and it will look lovely sitting next to your DVD releases. 

'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings' is now available at Amazon. Visit the soundtrack database for more information.