[Schilkeman]

I find RotK moderately interesting because he’s playing with his full deck of themes, and weaving them in a more mechanically satisfying manner. I still think he’s a mediocre orchestrator, resulting in a kind of muddy, green-brown mass of sound. His rather lumpy sense of rhythm (wild for a jazz guy) and the reverberant recording don’t help, although the OST does have impressive dynamic range. The Hobbit OSTs were more neutered, and worse off for it. The complete recordings certainly have their moments (I’m not a complete monster), but Shore’s underscore is just thoroughly uninteresting, and man, is there a lot of it.

Melody and harmony are the musical elements the scores excel at, but I need those themes to be worked in a more symphonic way to hold my interest for the amount of time Shore is asking. As accompaniment, it is exceptional, and enjoyable as part of a company of multi-media arts used to bring those books to life. As music, it might be less compelling to me than Bruckner, which is saying something.