The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Full Soundtrack Stream)

Arguably one of the most anticipated movies of the year, Peter Jackson’s prequel to his Lord of the Ringssaga, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been graced with an impressive soundtrack by New Zealand composer Neil Finn and Howard Shore. According to the director, Finn and Shore literally turned in their project d’art last minute.

“They were working on the soundtrack up to about 10 days ago,” he says, noting that he hasn’t yet heard it in isolation. “There’s a huge amount of cues. Something would be working not quite right; they’d have to go back and re-record. There’d be notes made. I wasn’t aware of the detail, of the minutiae. But I know that there is an obsessive nature that goes along with making these kinds of things, and everyone’s aiming to get it to a point where it sounds like it was the easiest thing in the world.”

The soundtrack for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released on December 11th. The film opens on December 14th. Rolling Stone presents the full audio stream of the album. Listen here