Back in December last year most of us with any love of LOTR ran to the cinema to watch the first installment of Peter Jackson’s take on The Hobbit, a prequel if you like to LOTR. Now I have had the pleasure to listen to the soundtrack that accompanies the film.

This is a 2 disc soundtrack that like the film has a hefty running time, in this case only 1hr 47 minutes. Howard Shore who also worked on LOTR score has done a great job of returning us to middle earth. There are hints of many familiar themes but he has only referenced the music he composed for the first trilogy, creating a different feel that still fits in with that world. There are some haunting melodies as well as more light-hearted character driven pieces. Shore does menacing very well and there are some outstanding pieces. Neil Finn provides the vocals on an original song entitled “Song of the Lonely Mountain” which is a welcome break in the scheme of things.

Although this is a very well scored film as a soundtrack it is overly long and I cannot imagine why you would listen to the whole thing unless you worked on the film or are a massive fan as it feels laborious 60 minutes in. But it cannot be denied this is a high quality score.