NON-OFFICIAL RECORDINGS OF HOWARD SHORE'S SCORE FOR PETER JACKSON'S MOVIES

These recordings use Shore's composition but they are not directed by Shore, nor do they use the same orchestra or vocal performers. Do not not be fooled by seeing the names: Howard Shore, Fran Walsh or Annie Lennox, et. al. They are being given credit for lyrics or music. Shore is not conducting and Lennox is not singing.

My primary intention for illuminating these recordings is as a resource for what it official and what isn't. I haven't listened to any of these and, unless I was feeling flush with money, I wouldn't buy any of these. But perhaps some might prove to have an interesting alternate interpretation of the score.

LESS LIKELY TO BE CONFUSED WITH SHORE'S SCORE but I'm on a roll so let's keep going

These recordings are not connected with the movies other than drawing inspiration from the same author's writings. They are probably less likely to be confused with the movie's soundtracks. I would be unlikely to buy the above recordings but these below are compositions unique from Shore's music and must be evaluated separated from the movies' scores. This list is not intended to be comprehensive.

Whether you like any of these or not really depends on whether their musical style is to your taste or not. If you love airy fairy harpy music, you might like one. If heavy metal is more your style, you'll might like another. Folky, Celtic your thing? Try another. I think the problem for letting these get under your skin is twofold. One, so many of us have the movie music ingrained in our brains and other styles, especially if it's somewhat dated, can be a bit jarring. Two, so many of us read the books and imagined our own tunes... or at least a musical style for the songs. In either case, one has to really work at listening with fresh ears to give any of these a fair chance.