SOUNDTRACK: The Two Towers - Howard Shore (2002)

[BloodBoal 7,538]

 

The Two Towers - Howard Shore (2002)

 

The Original Album Release.

Just like with The Fellowship Of The Ring, I hadn't listened to that one since the Complete Recordings release in 2006. Back then, I was glad to toss it away, as I was never fond of that album program, so I was a bit curious to see how I'd feel about that one after all those years had passed. Would I like it more than I used to or would I still feel the same way? Was I simply not seeing the greatness of this album program?

 

To give you a bit of context... Back in 2002, when that soundtrack was about to be released, I had absolutely no idea what to expect in terms of new thematic material, development of previous themes, etc. I don't think I gave it that much thought back then, to be honest (I was not enough into soundtracks yet to really consider the possibilities of sequel scores). I did not have any kind of expectations apart from hoping that I would like it. And when I finally got to listen to it, my reaction was... mixed, I suppose. A bit like with The Fellowship Of The Ring, I only liked the most obvious stuff right away: the absolutely spectacular Foundations Of Stone opening (great evocative title, by the way), the uplifting The Uruk-Hai (Ah, the Fellowship theme in that one! That's how you make a dashing return for a theme in a sequel!), the gorgeous Evenstar, the awe-inspiring Forth Eorlingas, Samwise The Brave (even if I felt (and still feel that way to some extent today) that this one was a somewhat failed attempt at making a grander version of The Breaking of The Fellowship. Failed, as it lacked the emotional impact of that track for reasons I couldn't explain)... But it soon appeared obvious to me there was much less stuff for me to like in that one than on the previous soundtrack. Too much of it consisted in nondescript, atmospheric music (The Leave Taking, The Forbidden Pool, Breath Of Life... None of those tracks had material as memorable as what could be found the The Fellowship Of The Ring soundtrack. The music just... happened but no emotion was felt), and while I liked what Shore did with the themes from the first film, the new thematic material didn't entirely convince me (I loved the Rohan material of course and Gollum's Menace too, but the music for the Ents didn't do much for me, and the Gandalf The White material left me a bit indifferent. Don't worry, I now love it). Plus, there was an awful lot of unreleased music I wanted more than what was on that album (the cool material for the chase through the plains of Rohan with the Fellowship theme and the Isengard theme as a counterpoint! The tense music for the scene where the Orc chases Merry and Pippin in Fangorn Forest! That awesome rendition of the Lothlorien theme for the arrival of the Elves at Helm's Deep, along with the one for the charge of the Elves! That even more awesome variation of the Fellowship theme when Gimli and Aragorn kill all the Uruks in front of the gate of the Hornburg!) and the order in which the tracks were arranged was weird to me.

 

And finally, there was Gollum's Song. That one took me by surprise, as it is something I certainly did not expect after the lovely May It Be. It's quite a departure from the sound of that one: the lyrics, the melody, the voice... It's all much colder, much darker. And as result, I didn't really like it. I didn't hate it, but I was simply more drawn to the more appealing May It Be. With time, I've come to appreciate it, and now, I even think I like it more than May It Be. The lyrics definitely are superior, and the melody is gorgeous (especially that haunting choral intro), but I may still have a problem with the Björk-like sound of Torrini's voice (which of course was most likely intended, if the rumors of the filmmakers originally wanting Björk are true). One thing is for sure: it fits the film and the score quite well. I'm also a big fan of the concluding Rohan theme statement with the added coda (makes me wish Shore had done something similar with the Fellowship theme at the end of FOTR, instead of simply reusing the statement heard at the end of The Council Of Elrond).

 

So... how do I feel about that soundtrack, now that I'm more familiar with the score and its themes? After having heard it again, I better understand now why I didn't like it, and still don't quite like it. First, there's the selection of music. Now, since the film offers three different storylines, Shore probably wanted to present them in (relative) equal proportions on the album, which is fair I suppose, but the thing is, by doing so, he favored a lot of atmospheric, non-distinctive music with not much of a narrative drive (like The Forbidden Pool, Breath Of Life), unlike the material found on the FOTR soundtrack, which had a clear musical narrative. And the narrative aspect of FOTR was one of the things I liked the most about that OST! That selection was thus made to the detriment of some exciting action or thematic-driven cues which resulted in a less varied musical experience (there's a lot of subtle underscore in the second half of the album) and meant that a lot of really cool material was not included on the release (that's why there was much more unreleased material I wanted from TTT than from FOTR). That problem is no longer much of an issue for me, as I now really like some of the music I didn't care about back then (for example, I now love the Gandalf The White material, while it used to leave me indifferent. Same for something like The Leave Taking). That being said, there is still some material that I believe didn't not necessarily deserve to be included on this release: the Treebeard music for example could have been replaced by something like the music for the Elves arriving at Helm's Deep. I understand why Shore included it (he most likely wanted to showcase all the new thematic material), but I still think other material would have been more interesting in its place, in order to offer a more exciting musical experience.

 

The second problem with the soundtrack release is the order in which the tracks were arranged. The FOTR soundtrack was pretty simple in that regard: it was completely chronological (with maybe one or two minor exceptions), which of course worked really well with the material, given how much most of it is narrative-driven. But with the The Two Towers release, for some reason, Shore decided to change that, and in my opinion, it simply does not work. Now, I'm not saying you can't do a non-chronological album program of TTT that works, simply that the one we got doesn't work. Here's why. The first two tracks present the opening material in chronological order. So far so good. Foundations Of Stone makes for a killer opening and The Taming Of Smeagol reacquaints us with the Shire theme before introducing new material. But then, it would have been interesting to have The Uruk-Hai, as the Fellowship theme in that track as a wonderful "the heroes are back!" vibe to it. Instead, Shore decided to give us The Riders Of Rohan, a suite-like track with very different material from different scenes. I assume it was to introduce his new thematic material (Rohan, Eowyn, Gandalf The White) early on the album. Fair enough. Surely, after that, we're gonna get The Uruk-Hai? Nope, we get The Passage Of The Marshes, a mostly atmospheric track... And only after that do we get The Uruk-Hai, but at that point, the "the heroes are back!" vibe arrives too late, methinks: placing it as the third or fourth track would have improved the listening experience. After that, it looks like the album resumes to a chronological logic with The King Of The Golden Hall, but instead, what follows is basically one suite-like track after the other (The Black Gate Is Closed - Evenstar - The White Rider - Treebeard - The Leave Taking - The Forbidden Pool, etc.). It doesn't feel like there's much of a logic behind the order of the tracks; We get big evil music (The Black Gate Is Closed) followed by sweet music (Evenstar), followed by big choral stuff (The White Rider), followed by obscure underscore (Treebeard)... There's no real flow to the program: the soundtrack just jumps from one idea to the next with no transition. It then seems to go back again to a chronological logic with Breath Of Life, The Hornburg and Forth Eorlingas, but then, in what seems like a really weird move to me (still to this day!), we get Isengard Unleashed before the music for the final scenes. That order always felt odd to me, as we get the music for the beginning of the battle (The Hornburg), followed by big victorious, "the battle is won!" music (Forth Eorlingas), only to return to more battle music (Isengard Unleashed) before finally having the emotional post-battle music (Samwise The Brave). Simply switching Forth Eorlingas and Isengard Unleashed makes for a more satisfying musical experience, which makes me wonder why Shore didn't do that. It is quite an odd program in my opinion, and I still can't quite figure the logic behind some of the choices made.

 

Yes, the album program of The Two Towers offers some odd choices which remain a mystery to me. I find the The Fellowship Of The Ring release to be superior to it in every way. While I don't consider the music selection for the TTT soundtrack to be as awful as I used to, I still think it could be improved upon, and the album program would definitely benefit from having the tracks arranged in a different order. If I ever end up making a one-disc program of my own, it would probably be vastly different from the official release (unlike a FOTR one).

 

Score: 8.5/10

OST Presentation: 6/10

[stewdog1 50]

Enjoyed the review!  It is definitely the least of the three.  However, I don't have the Complete Recordings, and I doubt I ever will unless they are re-released.  Have FOTR and ROTK.  But alas, I agree that the released OST is not a good presentation at all.

P.S. just saw on Amazon that the complete recordings are going for at least $450 with someone asking over $1100 for it.  WTH!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Don't worry: Doug Adams announced they should get a rerelease soon (it should have happened last year, but didn't for some reason, and he's hoping they'll get to do it this year).

[stewdog1 50]

Fingers crossed...

[mstrox 6,643]

Review is too long to read.  Is it good?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

We need someone to review the review!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

Didn't like it in 2002 diislikes it less now would choose different track-listing if he was compiling.

The summary: FOTR OST is better. As for TTT, stick with TCR.

Sorted 

[gkgyver 1,645]

In CR Form, TTT is easily better than FotR.

 

I find it tells a better story. There is a bit much repetition going on in FotR.

[Jay 37,281]

Some of the repetition in FOTR's CR is due to them retaining the final film's tracking on the discs, though.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

How much tracking is there? Cant be more that a minute or two. Nothing to write home about.

[Jay 37,281]

Enough to create a feel of reptitiousness when the same performance of the History of the Ring theme and what supposed to be a unique intro is used 3 times

[KK 3,307]

I never really minded it. It still works great as an album experience for me.

[Jay 37,281]

Of course the FOTR CR is amazing and great, but a proper version without tracking would be even better!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

7 hours ago, KK said:

I never really minded it. It still works great as an album experience for me.

 

This!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

One thing I forgot to mention... As I was revisiting this OST, I suddenly noticed something I hadn't noticed before, and it's something that I haven't seen mentioned before (at least not here at JWFAN), oddly enough, but I'm sure I'm not the first one to have noticed it: there seems to be a (distinct) similarity between Gandalf The Grey's theme and Gandalf The White's theme.

 

Take a listen here at 02'13:

 

 

And now listen to the bit at 01'21:

 

 

 

That's a nice touch.

[KK 3,307]

 

 

But yeah, definitely a cool connection there.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

So you stole my idea and incorporated it in your review?