Jerry Goldsmith’s music for Logan’s Run may prove to be just about the only element of the movie that had stood the test of time while still winning almost unanimous praise. Granted, I’m quite the fan of the movie itself, but it’s hard to deny that Goldsmith may have done a better job of painting the film’s emotional curve than the director did.

There are essentially two components to the score: a three-note theme for the futuristic city dome, and a more expansive melody for Logan’s burgeoning romance with Jessica. While the love theme may be more pleasant on a pure listening level, I find that it’s that city theme which I focus on, on an intellectual and structural level. Goldsmith puts those three notes through so many different permutations that it’s fascinating – in rapid-fire succession, the three notes form the electronic sound that opens the movie, as well as the orchestral figure that eventually overshadows it. But it’s also at the heart of the Carousel music, the nursery music, everything. Both structurally and musically, it’s pure genius.

Once the movie reaches its halfway point, the electronics disappear as Logan and Jessica leave the city behind and venture into the outside world. The city theme still follows them, though, now accompanying pursuing Sandman (and Logan’s former friend) Francis in the form of a low menacing orchestral reading of the same theme. But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit – the characters’ first glimpse of the outside world is treated with one of the most beautiful pieces of music Jerry Goldsmith ever wrote. It’s that good.

The complete score is heard here, in chronological order, including cues that were shortened or left out altogether due to trims that had to be made to reduce the movie’s nudity to a level where it would get a PG rating and not an R. Also included is a pop instrumental version of the love theme, though I was around when this movie first came out, and I certainly don’t recall hearing that hitting the radio airwaves at the time.

That’s the CD – but the CD is only half the package. This is the first disc I’ve bought from Film Score Monthly Magazine’s ever-growing selection of limited-edition soundtrack CDs, and as impressed as I’ve always been with the magazine itself, the CDs may well be even better. The detailed liner notes that accompany the CD do a fantastic job of putting the film and its music in context, and then goes through the score track-by-track, cue-by-cue, offering detailed analysis of each piece of music and its place in the complete score. Thematic elements and development, rhythm and structure are all analyzed in depth, but not to a degree that the layman can’t follow along. I was almost hesitant to offer any analysis of the score in this review at all, for fear that I’d wind up parroting the liner notes, but if anything, those notes helped draw my attention to the nuances in Goldsmith’s work all the more. If this is indicative of Film Score Monthly’s other CD offerings (and, judging by the fact that releases of other soundtracks such as The Omega Man and The Towering Inferno have already sold out, I’d guess that it is), I’ll be visiting their store more often and I heartily encourage you to do the same.

In short, the music from Logan’s Run is a treat, and the added bonus material is a nice, deep dish of tasty, tasty gravy that heightened my enjoyment of the music quite a bit. Highly recommended!

1. The Dome / The City / Nursery (3:05)
2. Flameout (3:23)
3. Fatal Games (2:26)
4. On The Circuit (3:49)
5. The Assignment / Lost Years (5:59)
6. She’ll Do It / Let Me Help (2:41)
7. Crazy Ideas (2:38)
8. A Little Muscle (2:22)
9. Terminated In Cathedral (1:28)
10. Intensive Care (3:00)
11. Love Shop (3:43)
12. They’re Watching / Doc Is Dead (2:45)
13. The Key / Box (4:22)
14. Ice Sculpture (3:35)
15. The Sun (2:15)
16. The Monument (8:12)
17. The Truth (2:03)
18. You’re Renewed (2:58)
19. The Journey Back / The Beach (1:36)
20. Return To The City / Apprehensions (2:30)
21. The Interrogation (3:58)
22. End Of The City (2:23)
23. Love Theme from Logan’s Run (2:27)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: 2001
Total running time: 74:18

R.E.M. ventured into uncertain territory for its third studio album; having done all its previous releases with producer Mitch Easter relatively close to the band’s Athens home base, this time around the band flew to England to work with Joe Boyd. While producer and band had a decent working relationship and a healthy respect for each other, the four members were clearly out of their comfort zone, in a country where their indie-rock reputation had not yet spread, suffering through a cold and dreary winter quite unlike their usual climate, and unsure of where to take the next record musically. The result is Fables of the Reconstruction (or possibly Reconstruction of the Fables, since the phrase ‘of the’ appears twice on the album’s cover art), a murky, often melancholy album that’s probably the least accessible of their early work. Years later, drummer Bill Berry would tell Rolling Stone that “Fables sucked,” but behind the murk is a rewarding depth and songs that have become essential parts of the R.E.M. canon.

Peter Buck’s familiar chiming guitars pervade the album, but are often sent to the background as a foreboding atmospheric element. He provides plenty of more assertive lead guitar lines throughout, and Mike Mills steps up on bass to drive many of the songs like Kohoutek and Old Man Kensey (the latter song sharing a writing credit with J. Ayers). Buck, Mills and Berry mesh exceptionally well on “Life and How to Live It,” one of the rare up-tempo tracks on the album. Another, “Cant Get There from Here,” actually boasts a horn section at the end, one which screams “four white guys bringing on a tiny amount of the funk” in a lightly self-deprecating way – it’s a fun song, and one of the bright moments of the album.

More typical is “Driver 8,” the album’s best-known song and one which really represents the essence of R.E.M. at the time. The album maintains a consistent mood thanks to the relatively slow pace of the songs and Michael Stipe’s delivery of lyrics that are still often highly allegorical or close to incomprehensible, although he starts making forays into social commentary with “Green Grow the Rushes.” The band’s isolation and homesickness comes through strongly in his singing and in the stories often drawn from the more eccentric side of the South. While not necessarily telling complete narratives, Stipe takes on more of the role of the storyteller here – stories that I feel more than I comprehend. If you’re willing to give Fables time to wash over you, you might feel them too.

After R.E.M. achieved international success with Warner Bros., IRS Records re-released the band’s early catalogue overseas with additional tracks, mostly live performances and remixes along with the occasional b-side. These additional tracks remain unavailable on U.S. versions of the album.

1. Feeling Gravitys Pull (4:48)
2. Maps and Legends (3:01)
3. Driver 8 (3:18)
4. Life and How to Live It (4:20)
5. Old Man Kensey (4:10)
6. Cant Get There from Here (4:10)
7. Green Grow the Rushes (3:42)
8. Kohoutek (3:10)
9. Auctioneer (Another Engine) (2:41)
10. Good Advices (3:30)
11. Wendell Gee (2:56)

(Track listing reflects original U.S. release; foreign re-releases contain additional tracks)

Released by: IRS Records/Capitol
Release date: 1985
Total running time: 39:43

R.E.M. changed producers again for their fourth studio album, having been frustrated by the gloominess that pervaded the recording and songs of Fables of the Reconstruction. They turned to Don Gehman, who had recently had significant chart success with John Mellencamp, and brought a group of faster, more energetic songs to the studio. The band may not have really been ready to record again; they were so short of material that they had to dig into their archives, the outtake reel, and their repertoire of covers to amass 12 tracks that don’t even break the 40 minute barrier. The songs they did have were so strong, however, and Gehman’s fresh approach so helpful, that Lifes Rich Pageant ranks as my favorite album from the group’s IRS years.

The opening track, the appropriately named “Begin the Begin,” clearly sets forth the album’s agenda with louder electric guitars from Peter Buck, enthusiastic drums from Bill Berry and clearer, more distinct vocals from Michael Stipe. (Clearer in the sense that you can figure out what words he’s singing. What those words might mean, on the other hand . . . not necessarily.) “These Days” has a very similar feel to it, while “I Believe” adds a banjo intro and Hyena has some nice piano work in the background to play off the guitars. “Just a Touch,” one of the band’s earliest songs, doesn’t sound out of place here; comparing the album version with a performance I’ve heard on a bootleg recording from the early 80s helps show Gehman’s influence as well as the growth in the group’s proficiency. All of these songs have a ‘can-do’ energy and confidence about them that’s reflected in the music and the lyrics, from “I Believe”’s title to “These Days’” “We are hope despite the times” and “Begin the Begin”’s “I looked for it and I found it, Miles Standish proud.”

It’s not all up-tempo all the time. “Fall on Me,” a song that started off as being a warning against acid rain and turned into a general plea against overwhelming pressure, and “Cuyahoga,” about the famed polluted river in Ohio, play up Mike Mills’ bass with a more somber pace. Both songs reflect the somewhat oblique political tone of Stipe’s work on this album, as does the beautifully sad “The Flowers of Guatemala.” Whatever Stipe is trying to get across with “Swan Swan H,” I never quite get it – but I get and enjoy its brooding atmosphere just fine.

The album closes out with “Superman,” a cover of an obscure 60s song by the Clique that features lead vocals by Mills. The cover’s actually gained a fair amount of notoriety over the years, and it’s a fun way to end the album. Both “Superman” and “Underneath the Bunker,” the brief outtake that closes the album’s first side, were added to the album so late that they were not listed on the album cover – which also does not list the other 10 tracks in the order they appear.

Lifes Rich Pageant boasts a lot of strong material. The songs do have a lot of similarities to each other; the band seems to be focusing on variations on themes here, rather than explore a lot of different directions on one album. For me, the approach works – the songs flow together very well and make listening to the full album a very enjoyable experience. The short running time probably works in its favor here; 60 minutes of such variations might get tiresome, but 40 feel just right.

After R.E.M. achieved international success with Warner Bros., IRS Records re-released the band’s early catalogue overseas with additional tracks, mostly live performances and remixes along with the occasional b-side. These additional tracks remain unavailable on U.S. versions of the album.

1. Begin the Begin (3:28)
2. These Days (3:24)
3. Fall on Me (2:50)
4. Cuyahoga (4:21)
5. Hyena (2:51)
6. Underneath the Bunker (1:27)
7. The Flowers of Guatemala (3:56)
8. I Believe (3:50)
9. What If We Give It Away? (3:34)
10. Just a Touch (3:00)
11. Swan Swan H (2:50)
12. Superman (2:52)

(Track listing reflects original U.S. release; foreign re-releases contain additional tracks)

Released by: IRS Records/Capitol
Release date: 1986
Total running time: 38:29

When Lifes Rich Pageant producer Don Gehman was unavailable to work with R.E.M. on a song they were contributing to a film soundtrack, he suggested they contact Scott Litt. Things went so well with that single that the band invited Litt to work with them on their fifth full studio album. The rest is, as they say, history, as Document marked R.E.M.’s first substantial entry into the mainstream.

The song that broke into the Top 40 was “The One I Love;” it is now a rite of passage for R.E.M. fans to closely consider the lyric “A simple prop to occupy my time” and exclaim “It’s not a love song!” (Bonus points for making this remark upon seeing couples acting romantically to each other while watching the song in concert.) Making less of an impact at the time was “Its the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine),” a song whose rapid-fire stream of pop culture and other random references still inspires me to yell “Leonard Bernstein!” at the appropriate moment and has itself become ingrained in popular consciousness. (The song title is also the point at which the band’s practice of eschewing apostrophes most grates on my grammar-snob nerves, but I’ve almost gotten over it.)

Document is a much deeper album than its two best-known tracks, however. Many of its songs, like “Exhuming McCarthy” and “Welcome to the Occupation,” reflect the social activism that began to come to the fore in Lifes Rich Pageant. The former may be my favorite track from the album; it opens with the sound of Michael Stipe’s manual typewriter and slides from a jaunty march-like cadence to a mellower tone for Mike Mills’ declaration that “It’s a sign of the times” and back again. Bill Berry’s drums and Peter Buck’s electric guitar are prominent throughout the album, not quite at the built-for-the-arenas level of Green, but definitely going for a stronger rock feel than a lot of the band’s previous work. A good example of that approach is in the band’s cover of the Wire song “Strange,” which blends into the rest of the album rather well.

Document tends to get moodier as it progresses; the shift can felt in the transition from “End of the World” to “One I Love,” and progresses from there to the horn-heavy “Fireplace.” The drum riff behind the wordless “ohhhhhh” chorus of “Lightnin’ Hopkins” sounds like a somewhat ominous call to action. Things slow down for “King of Birds,” which is a bit too lively to really be called a dirge, but which has a similar air of melancholy hanging over it. I think that song would have been a more effective closer than “Oddfellows Local 151,” which I think tends to meander a little too long.

After R.E.M. achieved international success with Warner Bros., IRS Records re-released the band’s early catalogue overseas with additional tracks, mostly live performances and remixes along with the occasional b-side. These additional tracks remain unavailable on U.S. versions of the album.

1. Finest Worksong (3:48)
2. Welcome to the Occupation (2:48)
3. Exhuming McCarthy (3:19)
4. Disturbance at the Heron House (3:33)
5. Strange (2:32)
6. Its the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) (4:07)
7. The One I Love (3:17)
8. Fireplace (3:24)
9. Lightnin’ Hopkins (3:18)
10. King of Birds (4:07)
11. Oddfellows Local 151 (5:21)

(Track listing reflects original U.S. release; foreign re-releases contain additional tracks)

Released by: IRS Records/Capitol
Release date: 1987
Total running time: 39:49