The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
by Howard Shore

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King by Howard Shore
(Soundtrack album)
Year: 2003
Release date: 2003-11-25
Overall rank: 5,765th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 51 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2003 (110th)
Award Top albums of the 2000s (990th)
Award Best albums of all time (5,765th)

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Howard Shore - Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King [New Vinyl LP]
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Howard Shore - Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King [New Vinyl LP]
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Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King Soundtrack By Howard Shore CD & DVD
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Howard Shore bestography

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King is ranked 3rd best out of 20 albums by Howard Shore on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Howard Shore is The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring which is ranked number 3711 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 400.

Howard Shore album bestography « Higher ranked (5,644th)
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
This album (5,765th)
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Lower ranked (14,938th) »
The Fly (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track
Rating/Comments
19.
Track pick (850 - 10 votes)
Average Rating: 85 (10 votes)Comments: View 0

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 5,765th | 2000s rank: 990th | 2003 rank: 110th

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King collection

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King ratings

Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 51 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 51 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 
06/01/2026 16:58 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  11,60870/100
 
90/100
 
03/11/2026 09:32 steve397  Ratings distribution  50775/100
 
80/100
 
01/25/2026 08:43 Rockollecto  Ratings distribution  1781/100
 
80/100
 
10/07/2025 16:48 JacobMullis  Ratings distribution  75188/100
 
90/100
 
08/26/2025 09:49 SomethingSpecial  Ratings distribution  1,76182/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.9/100, a mean average of 81.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 81.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.2.

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The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King favourites

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The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King comments

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Rating:  
80/100
From 01/25/2026 08:44 | #312791
You can't have those movies without the music, masterpieces.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 11/19/2020 21:12 | #261113
It's absolutely criminal that "The Lighting of the Beacons" was only included in the extended version of the soundtrack. Otherwise, this condensed version is wonderful. Howard Shore's score was absolutely essential to making the Lord of the Rings trilogy into the epic it became.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 09/11/2019 18:27 | #242479
If this was the extended version of the album it would be an easy 100. Still great but seriously the extended album for each movie is a masterpiece
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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