Well, if the writer intended "amongst the very best soundtracks of recent times" to mean "the finest film score achievement since the orginal Star Wars trilogy a quarter-century ago", I would agree.
I want to know where the bloopers-and-outtakes DVD fits in all this stuff.
It is funny, though--after my first viewing of FOTR, I expressed great disappointment in the music because there was no tune I went out the door humming--I didn't even *hear* the music in the first movie, so blown away was I with actually seeing it. It took my third viewing before I could listen to any of the background.
Now I listen to the soundtrack, and honestly think that Shore has outdone Wagner, Bizet and the rest.
As for LOTR doodads and collectables--I've never been satisfied. There needs to be lots more junk. I have all the bookmarks with their charms--these are delightful. But I expected a New Line "Banner of Gondor" with the White Tree.
Also, with this new long soundtrack, will I at last be able to hear "Elbereth Gilthoniel"? I know there's a version in the FOTREE with Frodo and Sam and the Departing Elves, but I have also read that these important lyrics were used in the Lothlorian music--and I've never been able to pick them out either in the movies or on a soundtrack.
My hope for this composition is that it will be more symphonic and less sountrack. That is--I hope the themes will be allowed to "finish" themselves and not leave the listener with suggestion. This is not possible in soundtracks, where music is to set the scene and emotion and doesn't stand by itself.