The Lord of the rings movie trilogy soundtrack's my favorite music for any movie and for any type, ever. Howard Shore's composition is so rich, intricate and engaging, that it's an integral part of the movies ; Yet, I also love listening to it independently.
This kind of experience is actually quite interesting, because without the added sounds of dialogues, fights, footsteps and general ambiance from the movie, the soundtrack offers a pure musical field, which I love listening to either on headphones, or, better yet, on the 7.1 hifi setup, even if the CD's only in stereo, as the speakers take over the entire range.
Off course, if I had the full recording editions (which i'll discuss further in this entry), I'd get a 'superior' sound but even a simple CD spread over 7.1 channels is quite impressive in itself.
