MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE LORD OF THE RINGS

"Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings" is the fourth studio album of Mostly Autumn and was released in 2001. In contrary as its name indicates, the music of the album wasn't inspired by "The Lord Of The Rings", the book of the famous trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien, but it was based because of the first film of the Trilogy cycle, "The Fellowship Of The Ring", when it was filmed and announced. Curiously, the recording of the album took only a fortnight to be recorded.

The line up on the album is Bryan Josh (lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitars), Heather Findlay (lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitars, tambourine, bodhran and recorders), Iain Jennings (keyboards), Liam Davison (rhythm, acoustic guitars and slide guitars), Angela Goldthorpe (backing vocals, flute and recorders), Andy Smith (bass guitars) and Jonathan Blackmore (drums). The album had also the participation of Duncan Ryson (keyboards and programming), Marcus Bousefield (violin), Marissa Claughan (cello) and Che (djembe), who were invited as guests.

"The Lord Of The Rings" is an oeuvre very well known all over the world. It's an epic novel divided into three volumes which was written by the English writer and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's also fantasy novel "The Hobbit", but developed into a much larger scale. The novel was even more immortalised by the three epic films directed by Peter Jackson, "The Fellowship Of The Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return Of The King".

Relatively to the album, the least we can say is that this is truly an unexpected album, which was what Mostly Autumn called it. They said that "The Lord Of The Rings" has long been a source of inspiration to them. The general idea was to present a whole set of songs based around the literary work. But, the most interesting and impressive thing was that Mostly Autumn made the album only in fourteen days in order to coincide with the world premiere of the first film of the series. So, and as the band wrote, this album is the final result of fourteen days and nights in November 2001. But as they said, it was never intended to be their fourth studio album but only wanted to be a tribute to a great literary work.

"Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings" is somehow a bit different of their three previous albums. Here we are in the medieval era with great flavours. All kind of instrumentation confirms that. The music is really great and the sound is more epic, sounding like a big performance. The guitars are more electric and powerful, the wind instruments are here a great element and also the percussion. This is a powerful and spectacular presentation of their much known formulas.

"Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings" has twelve tracks. The compositions are all different of each other. We find huge instrumental pieces mixed with soft and acoustic vocal ones. "Overture - Forge Of Sauron" opens the album powerfully and very dark. It's a great epic piece with a prog structure. "The Sauron" theme, which occurs several times, is introduced here. "Greenwood The Great (Shadowy Glades)" starts off rather folksy and then it kicks into high gear with loud guitars and drums. "Goodbye Alone" is a calm and melancholic piece, with a good instrumentation and nice guitar solo at the end. "Out Of The Inn" has a nice medieval environment, starting out light and airy and then lurches into an increasing sounding rocker. "On The Wings Of Gwaihir" is an instrumental that follows a steadily repeated riff, but works through several key changes to keep it interesting. "At Last To Rivendell" keeps its Celtic flavor throughout, even as its tempo hastens. It's almost a pure short and sweet folk music. "Journey's Thought" has a meditative mood and is another calm and sweet piece that rambles a bit, but maybe that's the point. "Caradhras The Cruel" is a bit short, but is a powerful song with a strong guitar, and it's very well arranged. "The Riders Of Rohan" is an uplifting and joyful rolling piano melody, sung in a friendly voice by Heather Findlay. "Lothlorien" is very delicately played and sung and despite its strong lyrics it's one of the most subtle tracks on the album. "The Return Of The King" is one of the most spectacular pieces on the album with a powerful guitar power chord sequence. "To The Grey Havens" is an acoustic and beautiful ballad. It's just a little bit sad, but the guitar and sparse violin confirm that this is a good end to the album.

Conclusion: "Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings" is an excellent album. I enjoy it very much. It's a big surprise due to many of the things I've read on Progarchives. Recording an album only in fourteen days includes many risks such as repeating melodies, some inconsistency and music with low quality level. But, Mostly Autumn hasn't fall too deeply into those problems, really. This was largely compensated by some stunning tracks like "Overture ? Forge Of Sauron", "Out Of The Inn", "At Last To Rivendell", "Lothlorien" and "The Return Of The King". By the other hand, I don't agree with those who say that "Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings" is an album too much inspired in Pink Floyd's music. Besides, I can't see anything wrong with that and I sincerely think that no harm can come to the world because of that. So and concluding, "Music Inspired By The Lord Of The Rings" is an excellent Mostly Autumn's album.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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