Cheap Cds - The Lord of the Rings

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: lord of the rings
Comment: before the CD was released i had to survive off of the media on the website which there wasnt much
to listen to.
then the CD was released and i thought that it was good and then i grew on me
and i cant stop listening to it.
this CD is my ipod favourite.

i would strongly
recomend this CD to anyone that wants a new experience from musical theatre.
the most amazing
CD i have ever bought.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Emotive and inspiring - fantastic work.
Comment: When I saw this musical about six months ago, I was most impressed by the staging, set and costume
design. I reckoned the music was pretty good but perhaps nothing incredibly special (although I
definately did decide straight away that I absolutely adored Galadriel's voice (played by Laura
Michelle Kelly). Very powerful and very beautiful).
However, as I have learned over the years,
the best music needs time to grow on you. If you love a song straight away, the chances are you'll
get tired of it quickly.
A few weeks after seeing it, I started to search for video clips on
YouTube, and found that I soon became totally hooked on the songs. I bought the soundtrack as soon
as I could and I love it.

The music was composed by an Englishman, an Indian and a
group of Finns - in my opinion, possibly the best combination you could get.
The English
influence gives it a distinctly British medieval/folkish/Celtic sort of feel (as Tolkien intended,
since Middle Earth and the story of LOTR is said to be set in a dark age of England long forgotten);
the Indian influence adds a beautiful, mysterious and exotic element (I particularly like the use of
Indian-style female voices); and the Scandinavian influence brings the Nordic folk-lore feeling
(again appropriate as Tolkien's songs and poems in LOTR are meant to have been inspired by the
Kalevala (Finland's national epic about the hero Väinämöinen), which he studied).
/>As with pretty much any CD, I'll admit that there are a few tracks that I usually skip (e.g.
Lament For Moria or Gollum/Sméagol). But the utterly supreme beauty of the other songs entirely
make up for those I like a little less.
Personal favourites are probably The Song Of Hope
(duet), which is both heart-warming and shiver-inducing; and Wonder, in which Laura Michelle Kelly
shows off her fantastic voice best.
A number of songs are also close behind those two
favourites: Star Of Eärendil, Flight To The Ford, The Final Battle, Lothlórien and Prologue(Lasto
I Lamath)... I want to mention almost all of them.

Despite a certain amount of media
piss-take about dancing hobbits, this musical is fantastic. These songs are entirely their own, with
no similarity to Howard Shore's incredible compositions for Peter Jackson's wonderful films - they
capture the same beauty, desperation, darkness and hope in a new and unique way.
This is yet
another fantastic musical work for Tolkien's classic.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Just Wow.
Comment: I went to see this show at Christmas 2007 and unfortunately didn't buy the soundtrack when I was
there. I was OVER THE MOON when I found this on Amazon. The songs are AMAZING and Laura Michelle
Kelly is a star!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Amazing Show!
Comment: I saw this show in London last November! Can anyone tell me the reason that laura michelle kelly is
no longer a cast member?
Great CD...Laura`s voice magnificent!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Really a 'Wonder'
Comment: I recently purchased several cast recordings from Amazon including this (the other two being
'Phantom' and 'Rent'), with this being the most eagerly anticipated. After all, when compared to
only hearing a couple of the songs from this production, as opposed to almost the whole scores from
the others (thanks to the films), this was a far more mysterious venture, and one I could hardly
wait to take.

I have to say, as with the majority of musical soundtracks and albums by
contemporary artists, on first listening you're not all that sure what to think. You're not sure
whether you really like it or not. However, after having listened to it several times, and once
you've gotten over the fact that half the lyrics are sung in Elvish, the Black Language, or another
of Tolkein's invented tongues, that this obviously isn't a typical musical in the sense of the word,
it's extremely difficult to put this CD down.

The reason being, I think, is that it's
just so easy to listen to. The beautiful prologue ('lasto i lamath') , sung entirely in Elvish with
a somewhat Celtic style of music (which is a heavy influence throughout the score), gently eases you
into the CD. We're then treated to the first of the more folksy style songs from the Hobbits with
'The Road Goes On'. It's a far more gentle style of music than I, at least, would have imagined,
suiting the Hobbit character down to the ground.

There is, however, plenty of variation
in style and pace on this recording - 'Saruman' has a sharpness to it that is very much enhanced due
to the fact that it is sung entirely in Elvish. 'The Song of Hope' is the sort of song that you hum
subconsciously to yourself as you go about the days' proceedings, and 'Star Of Eärendil' runs in
the same vein, being the first big, dramatic number for the whole company. In fact, the music is
such that you will have the entire album running through the mind when you least expect it. />
For me, the highlights to the CD are the songs 'Lothlórien' and 'Wonder', both sung
predominantly by the angel-voiced Laura Michelle Kelly as Galadriel. 'Wonder' has a spine tingling
reprisal in 'The Final Battle', and is a real belter towards the end - one of the very few on the
CD, and which suits it well.

I believe the duet between Aragorn and Arwen, 'The Song of
Hope (duet)' is under-appreciated and overshadowed by the likes of 'The Cat and the Moon' and
'Wonder' - though it doesn't have as big an initial impact as some of the others, it does become a
beautiful and tender ballad between the two characters. This song, I think, benefits the most from
repeated listening.

The finale is one of the most uplifting and pleasurable I've heard
for a long time - sort of similar to the finale of 'The Lion King', but with a, obviously, far more
Celtic twist than African.

As far as the DVD goes, it's basically the same thing as the
CD, with some fascinating (and at times, quite random!) pictures of the production, in full
performance and backstage, during development, etc. The alternate version of 'The Song of Hope' is
nothing spectacular (I'm very glad they used the one they did), but interesting to listen to on the
odd occasion. So nothing hugely extra there, but nothing to turn your nose up at either.
/>All in all, this CD is a must-have for all theatre fans. I've listened to it three times in quick
succession just today, and will probably continue to do so whenever I want something to listen to.
The music really is stunningly beautiful - one of the few recordings I've heard where the wholly
instrumental tracks are as interesting and easy to listen to as the songs. The only problem, really,
is the relative shortness of it - you can listen to the whole CD, non-stop, in about an hour. The
only improvement I would seek, as a result, would have been to just have more music.
/>Honestly, get it. If you had doubts about seeing the show beforehand (despite being pretty
successful so far, and having a generally excellent reception from audiences, critics were less than
kind) you'll certainly want to now. Here's hoping to a good few years on the West End for this
spectacular, both musically and otherwise, production!

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