Track Listing

1. X-Files Theme - Mark Snow
2. Unmarked Helicopters - Soul Coughing
3. On the Outside - Sheryl Crow
4. Down in the Park - Foo Fighters
5. Star Me Kitten - William S. Burroughs
6. Red Right Hand - Nick Cave
7. Thanks Bro - Filter
8. Man of Steel - Frank Black
9. Unexplained - Meat Puppets
10. Deep - Danzig
11. Frenzy - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
12. My Dark Life - Elvis Costello, Brian Eno
13. Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn) - Alice Cooper, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie
14. If You Never Say Goodbye - P.M. Dawn
15. X-Files Theme [P.M. Dawn Remix] - Mark Snow

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23352 in Music
• Released on: 1996-03-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Explicit Lyrics, Soundtrack
• Original language: English, German

Amazon.com
An influential TV series of the '90s has generated a dark, eerie, and vaguely campy set of "inspired-by" songs from a diverse group of musical fans. Pride of place here goes to three tracks: the Foo Fighters' delicious cover of Gary Numan's "Down In The Park," a filthy remake of R.E.M.'s "Star Me Kitten" by literary lion William Burroughs, and a titanic, cross-generational collision between Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper on "Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn)." Sheryl Crow's "On The Outside" is a toss-off in this company, while Mark Snow's famous X-Files theme loses its creepy edge in both extended and P.M. Dawn-remixed incarnations. --Jeff Bateman

Customer Reviews

Two Secret Songs!
This really is a great CD but it is VERY important to note one thing that is over-looked by 99.9% of the people who buy this CD: There are two hidden tracks before the first track. These can be found by rewinding from Track 1 past 0:00 into "negative time". When you get to -9:15 let go and there are two new songs. One is by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds called "Time Iesum Transeuntem et non Reverendem" (Dread the passage of Jesus for he will not return) and the other one is by The Dirty Three and is a version of the X-Files Theme. This is one of the best hidden tracks I have ever found on any album. A hint is given to you on the inside of the insert above the info for Track 1 that says "Nick Cave and The Dirty Three would like you to know that "0" is also a number" Great CD.

X-File fan or not, this is a great CD
Songs in the Key of X cannot really be called a soundtrack; it consists not of songs necessarily from The X-Files but songs inspired by and worthy of inclusion in the show. It's quite an eclectic mix, featuring many dark songs that sparkle with the horrid electricity one associates with The X-Files. The premiere track has to be Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This song is itself part of the lore and mythology of the show; any X-Files fanatic can tell you the story of how Chris Carter heard this song driving home from work one night and fell in love with it. Besides highlighting the road trip of abductee Duane Barry in Season Two, the song has also been featured prominently in the Scream movies, so this one will be familiar to many. Clearly, most of these songs are in the same dark, forceful vein - e.g., Danzig's Deep, Screamin' Jay Hawkins' Frenzy, and Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn) from the powerhouse duo of Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper. Soul Coughing's contribution Unmarked Helicopters may best fit the milieu of The X-Files and is an excellent song to boot. The Foo Fighters, a band that has never really captured my attention, makes a nice addition with Down in the Park. Frank Black's Man of Steel was a pleasant surprise to me, having only heard a much different kind of performance from him on Gordon Gano's Hitting the Ground.

The great variety of songs here means two things: there is something for everyone here, but every individual will also undoubtedly have a few tracks he/she doesn't particularly care for. Sheryl Crow's On the Outside is a perfectly good song, but it doesn't seem to fit here in my opinion. Elvis Costello's My Dark Life has potential but never succeeds in grabbing my attention. Star Me Kitten from William S. Burroughs & R.E.M. is just strange and almost unexplainable (it also is the primary reason for the Explicit Lyrics sticker on the cover). The big mystery here for me, though, is P.M. Dawn. Not only does their song If You Never Say Goodbye seem out of place, their remix of Mark Snow's excellent X-Files Theme is quite unnecessary given the greatness of Mark Snow's original version that starts this CD off with a bang.

You don't have to be an X-Files fan to enjoy this CD, but fans will have much more appreciation of the ingenuity and creative track selection that went into this album. The liner notes feature some perfectly odd artist drawings of X-Files characters and scenes as well as statements about the album from X-Files bigwigs Chris Carter and David Was. One should not think this album was released just to make money off of the hot X-Files name; there is a lot of quality music here that one might not ever have the chance to discover on one's own.

Soundtrack For The Unknown, Misunderstood, & Beyond
I love this album because it is so very artistic and musically moody, where shades of paranoia, loneliness, misunderstood expression, dark prophecies, and sadness rage throughout. It was this album that got me into alternative music in the first place, and now I am a fan of most of the artists. After Mark Snow wonderfully covers the show's trademark creepy anthem, beat poetry band Soul Coughing starts talking of complex conspiracy while the mixture of off-beat music takes a hold of you. ("Unmarked Helicopters" is an in-reference to the 'Duane Barry' show, in which they are the U.F.O.s that abduct people.) Sheryl Crow gives a sense of loneliness and depression with "On The Outside", which can also relate to anyone who has ever been looked down upon or been referred to as an outcast. Foo Fighters cover "Down In The Park", a great rock song about dark men & alien world domination. William Burroughs recorded a shoddy remake of R.E.M.'s "Star Me Kitten" about a year before he died, and is a great place to get into the spoken-word absurdities that make his writing great. The always gothic Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds continue their walk of solemn decay portraits with the eerie lyrics and sound of "Red Right Hand". It is about Satan. Filter take a leave of absence from their hardcore sound with the largely acoustical "Thanks Bro", a great mellow song for the album. If you like their new hit "Take A Picture", you will like this one. Aw, now to Frank Black, one of my favorite artists. His words aren't as profound and mind-bending as usual here, but "Man Of Steel" is still one of his best because of its "lonely, on the road, looking for life in space" mood. Sounds like he's talking right through the eyes of Mulder and his guitar is great here. Meat Puppets philosophize about the paranormal with the hard-rocking "Unexplained", right before self-loathing devil worshipper Danzig haunts you with the disturbing "Deep", but not as disturbing as the dark duet of Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie on the hardcore "Hands Of Death(Burn Baby Burn)". Elvis Costello & ambient explorer Brian Eno drift off into artistically formed sadness with "My Dark Life", fantastic songwriter Costello telling a story of wicked mankind. P.M. Dawn tell a pop rock filled story of the apocalypse which was written by Chris Carter. Carter's words go right along with Dawn's semi-psychadelic rock, and the result is beautiful. A sense of hope or a loss of hope? Hmm. They also do a great reworking of the X-Files theme. So if you are a big fan of "The X Files", can relate to Mulder's sense of rejection, loneliness, paranoia, and misunderstood genius, and have wierd theories on life, than this is the album for you.