**RotK Soundtrack - Into the West**

[Imladris]

I thought the song was absolutely brilliant. After listening to it over and over, I'm quite impressed at it's sense of loss. You can almost see Frodo and Sam talking to each other:<P>Sam to Frodo after the Ring is destroyed: Why do weep? <BR>What are these tears upon your face? <BR>Soon you will see <BR>all of your fears will pass away, <BR>safe in my arms <BR>you're only sleeping. <BR>~~~~~~~~~<BR>He was very hopeful and protective during the entire journey.<P><BR>Frodo: Don't say, <BR>"We have come now to the end." <BR>White shores are calling <BR>you and I will meet again. <P>[Sam nods and watches Frodo leave for the Valinor at the end of the book]<BR>***************8<BR>But that's only me 'humble opinion.

[Calencoire]

The lyrics were beautiful, but Annie's coarse voice grates on my ears. (Nothing against her, but it just doesn't mix)It seems like she's trying so hard she's nearly shouting. The song in it's entirety would be fine, but I feel it doesn't fit. Too folkish for Middle Earth. A clearer voice and a different rhythym would have suited better. To be honest, I can't really see the ship sailing into the west with this song.

[Arathiriel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Don't say, <BR>"We have come now to the end." <BR>White shores are calling <BR>you and I will meet again. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>You know the more I think about these lyrics the more they almost sound as though they're addressed to the audience because I know the experience of seeing ROTK will be a bittersweet one for all of us as it means we have to say goodbye to these characters we have watched grow and suffer and triumph over adversity for three years. I can't help but think of the lyrics:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Don't say, <BR>"We have come now to the end." <BR>White shores are calling <BR>you and I will meet again. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>When I think of the ending of the journey!

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

The voice of Annie Lennox reminds me of Galadriel smiling to Frodo in the RotK trailer. Both Lennox and Galadriel have deep voices. This piece brings unbelievable beautiful images into my mind.

[Goldberry]

Hmmm....I'm not quite as thrilled as the majority of people here. I'm not <I>as</I> dissapointed about Annie Lennox's voice anymore, but the song's chorus sounds a bit materialistic to me. It doesn't seem as original as May It Be or Gollum's Song. Probably by the end of the movie it will seem fine, though.

[Arathiriel]

You know I love this song but Annie Lennox's voice will have to grow on me. I know they didn't want to use Enya again but why couldn't they have used Loreena McKennitt and even Maire Brennan (Yeah I know she's Enya's sister) as both have <B>beautiful</B> voices?<P>*sighs*<P>I hope AL's voice will grow on me!

[mollecon]

1) McKennitt is great, but as far as I know out of the loop due to a family tragedy a couple of years ago.<P>2) Enya's voice <I>is</I> beautiful - but there are other considerations than pure beauty when it comes to delivering a song - see my comments on the soundtrack thread.<P>Were I to choose between listening to an Enya album or a Lennox ditto, I'd choose Lennox anyday - I love Enya's contribution to the first soundtrack, but I think she'd bore me to pieces if i had to listen to a whole CD with her.

[Arathiriel]

Just listening to this song on my copy of the soundtrack and I think it will go along beautifullly with the movie - it is actually quite beautiful to hear the tracks <I>The Grey Havens</I> along with <I>Into the West</I>!<p>[ 01:04 AM November 26, 2003: Message edited by: Arathiriel ]

[Arathiriel]

Oh yes, <I>Into the West</I> is growing on me as is Annie Lennox's voice!

[Enorëiel]

Everything I said before... forget it! I love this song! I got the soundtrack and am now in love with this song! It made me so sad that i wanted to cry! It's beautiful!

[Iris Alantiel]

I've heard the song one time, and I have to admit, I didn't like it as well as I liked the other two. But then, I also have to admit that I'm biased for a couple of other reasons.<P><UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>1) I was hoping to hear more from Enya, as she is one of my favourites. This was probably an unrealistic hope, but this is something I did after TTT, too; I hated 'Gollum's Song' at first for not being by Enya. But it grew on me (as I'm expecting 'Into The West' to do) and now it's - dare I say it - my favourite LotR song (sorry, Enya!)<BR><LI>2) I love Loreena McKennitt, she's my number one favourite of all time (sorry again, Enya!) and I was thinking of how she would have done the song differently from how Annie Lennox did it. Which is not exactly fair to Annie Lennox. <BR><LI>3) I seem never to like these songs all that well the first time around. Come to think of it, I wasn't all that crazy about 'May It Be' upon first hearing it - I remember thinking it was a pretty song, but I'd heard Enya do better before. Same goes for 'Gollum's Song', I had to wait for it to grow on me, and presumably same for 'Into The West'.<BR></UL><P>So I guess the moral of the story, or at least what I'm trying to get at, is I'm waiting for the song to grow on me, as all the other ones have, and trying not to make a quick judgment based on a comparison to other singers or songs. Ask me again in about a month, and I'll probably say it's the greatest song ever, or at least have some sort of balanced perspective.

[Oddwen]

I wasn't sure the first few times I listened to it, but now I think it might be my favorite of the three main tunes. It seems more Tolkien-ish rather than Jackson-ish, more folky and I like it a lot.

[Elizabeth Elindel]

I had to listen to it. It's playing now. I think that it's wonderful. I will be excited to hear it after I save up enough money to buy the CD - my realplayer needs to be updated, it's not the best thing to hear it with. I think it's a beautiful song, and anyone who hasn't listened to it yet needs to!<BR>Elizabeth

[Sapphire_Flame]

Well, now that I've heard the whole song, I like it much better. The louder bits in the chorus are still a bit grating, but it really is a gorgeous song; the lyrics are very good, and I love the melody.<P>Oh, and just to contradict what some people seem to keep saying: <B>I *LOVED* "Gollum's Song" the first time I heard it!!!</B> <P>Abedithon le,<P>~*~Aranel~*~

[Luthien_ Tinuviel]

I absolutely adore it. I can easily say that it's my favorite of the three LOTR credit songs, even though I really liked "May It Be". I actually waited to get the soundtrack until Christmas, so when I saw ROTK I hadn't heard it before (but everyone talked after the film was over, so the second time I heard a lot more of it). Then I got the soundtrack and now I've listened to it ten or eleven times. And the first nine times I heard it, I cried. It does that to me. It's so beautiful and touching, and seems to me to be so relevant especially to Sam and Frodo's relationship, which is my favorite part of LOTR and one of the things I am always most concerned with. It was <I>very</I> bittersweet. I think it made me cry all the more, though (especially during the movie, where it ties in so wonderfully) is that it's particularly relevant to my life. The theme of bereavement is not exactly a new one to me, and I do long for Valinor. And it just has this piercing beauty that I love. So I think it especially affects me because of my nature and love of bittersweet and joyfully sad things.<p>[ 8:18 PM December 28, 2003: Message edited by: Luthien_ Tinuviel ]

[Cibbwin]

The lyrics are amazing. I tear whenever I read em.<P>Annie Lennox's singing was fair, but the music itself just wasn't organic enough... the beginning was especially weird.

[Lathriel]

I love the Lyrics but Annie lennox's voice makes the song sound too popish compared to May it be and Gollum's song.If you think I am judging her because of the songs she wrote before, well I have never heard any of them. I think Annie Lennox sings too loud during the climax because the song doesn't have to be loud especially when you finish the movie with a quiet scene.<BR>So what I do is I sing along and that way the song seems to sound better.

[Cibbwin]

Ditto that, Lathriel! Yay for compromise.

[Orominuialwen]

I really hated it when I heard the clip, but after hearing the whole thing, I absolutely loved it. I don't mind Annie Lennox's voice at all. In fact, I'd never even heard of her before the soundtrack (shows you how much I know about pop music!) When we saw RotK, my brother and I stayed in our seats during the credits ang sang along with <I>Into the West</I>. My only complaint is that the very end of the song, after the singing is done, is rather anti-climactic. I would've preferred if it had ended with the Gondor theme, like <I>May It Be</I> ended with the Fellowship theme, and <I>Gollum's Song</I> ended with the Rohan theme. Other than that, I absolutely LOVE the song, although I still think <I>May It Be</I> is my favorite.

[Eldawen of Lorien]

I got the soundtrack for Christmas and I absolutly love <I>Into the West</I>. I agree it would have been better if Enya, or Loreena McKennitt, or someone with more of a lighter, celtic like voice if you know what I mean. I think the lyrics are awesome though and I don't mind Annie Lennox too much. As for the end of the song after the singing, I liked that it was soft because it represtents sort of a soft closure, but that's just what I think.

[Eldawen of Lorien]

Forgot to say that out of all three of the ending songs, I still like <I>May it Be</I> the best, then <I>Into the West</I> comes in at a very close second, unfortunatly <I>Gollum's Song</I> is still growing on me.

[Luthien_ Tinuviel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> In fact, I'd never even heard of her before the soundtrack (shows you how much I know about pop music!) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Me neither. But she really doesn't sound all that pop-ish to me. I know I'm going against the flow here, but I really can't hear it. <P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> I think Annie Lennox sings too loud during the climax because the song doesn't have to be loud especially when you finish the movie with a quiet scene.<BR> <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I don't mind it, in fact, it fits for me. Maybe I'm just weird, but the song represents a lot of different things to me, and one of them is sea-longing. So the surges in the volume reflect the surges of the sea, and the surges of sea-longing itself. I don't know if Frodo and Sam got sea-longing (I doubt it), but it would be a nice idea. The elves have it, anyway, and since going "Into the West" involves a sea-voyage, it makes sense.

[Gorwingel]

Well after listening to it a few times I have to say that my feelings are mixed about it. There are some parts that I absolutely love where the melody and the lines of the song blend perfectly, but then there are other parts where it sounds like Annie Lennox is pushing her voice too much. I like the beginning, and when Mrs. Lennox is singing more softly, but when she trys to go louder and higher it just dosn't work for me <P>Oh, and I am a slight fan of Annie Lennox, and for the people who think she is too "pop", she really isn't. She is known for always being different, and experimental. She can do the popish stuff, but then she can do stuff that is much, much, different.<p>[ 10:58 PM January 01, 2004: Message edited by: Gorwingel ]

[Knight of Gondor]

I myself refrained from listening to the soundtrack until after seeing the movie. Now that I have heard it all, I have some thoughts.<P>You might, by the way, look up my review on Amazon.com, in case you want to. (You see, I'm shooting for a top 1000 slot, and it takes helpful votes, so if you find it helpful...) <P>Okay, first of all, I was not a very big fan of Enya's May it Be. It was sort of a boring song, and it didn't make much since. Darkness comes, believe and you'll find your way, darkness comes, but a promise lives within you, blah blah. I don't mean offense at Enya fans, or Enya, but the song failed to sound good to me.<P>For Gollum's Song, I'm sure the singer had a nice voice, but the song itself was sour enough that I didn't enjoy it much either. The singer didn't do that well, in my opinion either.<P>As for Annie Lennox, my brother told me pre-soundtrack release that she was going to sing a song, and that she'd been the one who'd sung at the end of Apollo 13. I really liked the end credits music for that, so I figured it'd be good. And then he listened to a sample online, and told me it was great, she was singing about HEAVEN. We got the soundtrack maybe a couple of weeks after its release, (darn slow store) but we put it up on the shelf and didn’t listen to it until after the movie. <P>So the first time I actually heard it was in the theater. And, nice try, the folks at the theater accidentally turned the music and end credits off right as they were beginning. My brother (or should I say Gandalf the White) ran out to thrust his staff at them and make them turn it back on, which they did. Then I heard it again on the CD at home.<P>Of the three end-credits songs, I believe I find Into the West to be the best. (I’m not even going to point out that that rhymed) I do agree that there is something about Annie Lennox’s voice that seems <I>just</I> a little mismatched, both with the movie and the music. But on the other hand, it’s the first song that goes anywhere (on the scale) without singing in a hopeless sounding manner. Being a born-again Christian, the lyrics are especially inspiring as a promise of the life to come, in Heaven. (I think it would be kinda cool to have your last words be I Aear cân ven na mar — the sea calls us home)<P>So of the three, Annie Lennox and Into the West get my vote as the best.