Production
Although The X-Files: The Album is the soundtrack to the 1998 film The X-Files , only one of the album's songs—"Crystal Ship" by X—is actually heard during the film, briefly playing on a jukebox during a brief scene, [1] while "Teotihuacan" by Noel Gallagher and "Walking After You" by Foo Fighters play over the ending credits. The album's producer, David Was, intended to match the film's tone rather than using the songs as content, leading to several of the artists involved contributing material which would seem "uncharacteristically eerie" compared to their usual work. [1]
Many of the songs on The X-Files: The Album are cover versions or reworkings of earlier material—singer Sting collaborated with the group Aswad to perform a reggae cover of "Invisible Sun", which he had earlier recorded with The Police; Filter's "One" is a rearrangement of a song made famous by Three Dog Night; while Foo Fighters contributed a new version of their song "Walking After You". [2] [3] All but one of the album's tracks are exclusive to the soundtrack, with Björk's "Hunter" having been previously released on the 1997 album Homogenic . [4] Several of the artists on the album's roster—Foo Fighters, Filter and Soul Coughing—had previously contributed material to Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files , the soundtrack album which accompanied the television series; however, Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, stated before the album's release that although "there are some similarities" between the records, "there are different artists and a different flavor". [5]
The inclusion of a track by the group Ween was spurred by fact that The X-Files star David Duchovny had first met then-wife Téa Leoni through their mutual appreciation for the group; [5] while the Cardigans were approached about contributing material after Carter saw them performing on a tour of the United States. [6] The Filter cover of "One" was deliberately constructed by Was once he realized that Duchovny had ad-libbed the song's opening line during one of the film's scenes. [1] The album's final track—a cover by Dust Brothers of Mark Snow's opening theme for the television series—features a hidden track which plays after a period of silence. The track features a spoken word segment by Carter which explains the series' overarching mythology up to the film's release. [2]
David Eric Grohl is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, for which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of the rock band Nirvana from 1990 to 1994.
The X-Files is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The original television series aired from September 1993 to May 2002 on Fox. During its original run, the program spanned nine seasons, with 202 episodes. A short tenth season consisting of six episodes ran from January to February 2016. Following the ratings success of this revival, The X-Files returned for an eleventh season of ten episodes, which ran from January to March 2018. In addition to the television series, two feature films have been released: The 1998 film The X-Files and the stand-alone film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, released in 2008, six years after the original television run had ended.
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Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files is a 1996 compilation album released in association with the American science fiction television series The X-Files. The album contained a mixture of songs that were either featured in the series, or shared thematic elements with it. Songs in the Key of X peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart after its release. The album's title is a play on the title of Stevie Wonder's 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life.
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"Walking After You" is a song by Foo Fighters and appears on the band's 1997 album The Colour and the Shape. In 1998 a re-recorded version appeared on The X-Files: The Album, the soundtrack to the original X-Files movie, and was released as a single.
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The Truth and the Light: Music from the X-Files is a 1996 album by Mark Snow. The album is composed of excerpts of instrumental music scores from the first three seasons of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, on which Snow was the resident composer. These tracks are linked together with portions of dialogue from the series.
The Bird and the Bee is an American indie pop musical duo from Los Angeles, consisting of Inara George and Greg Kurstin. Kurstin is a nine-time Grammy Award–winning producer and multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists including Sia, Adele, Beck, Kendrick Lamar, and the Foo Fighters. George and Kurstin met while the two were working on her debut album and they decided to collaborate on a jazz-influenced electropop project. Their debut EP, Again and Again and Again and Again, was released on October 31, 2006, followed by their self-titled debut album on January 23, 2007.
Music of The X-Files franchise is composed and written by American Mark Snow; the franchise was created by Chris Carter. Snow has composed the music for all the franchise main releases. Together with the show, the music was positively met by critics and viewers of the show alike. Snow has been nominated with over twenty awards and nominations for his music on the various franchise releases, but notably The X-Files. Among the most famous compositions of the franchise is the theme song for The X-Files. The theme was a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart.
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