Music to Adventure By

In 2001, I bought Howard Shore's soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as soon as it came out, some months before the movie. The music was dark, moody and complex and initially hard to embrace. But over time I listened to it again and again and again, before and after seeing the movie, eventually recognizing it as a classic in the same league as John Williams' original Star Wars soundtrack (which I listened to hundreds of times when I was a kid and have damn near memorized). A decade later, I still listen to Fellowship (and the Complete Recordings version) quite often at work. The soundtracks for The Two Towers and The Return of the King are also excellent.

As an aside, when I was younger, I absolutely loved movie music soundtracks.  I had all the Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones movies, Star Treks I-VI, Hoosiers, Aliens, Terminator 2, Dune, and more.  I don't buy soundtracks too often any more, but the Lord of the Rings soundtracks have been the exception.

Now that The Hobbit is coming out, I'm looking forward to a new Shore soundtrack of Middle Earth adventures. While it's not available yet, it is now available for streaming.

Hear all the awesome Hobbity goodness here.  Empire's Streaming Hobbit.