Let's get less political and more fictional, eh?
Yesterday's Spooky Month post got a little to real for me. I know, I wrote it - I should be able to reign it in. So how's about a whole soundtrack to my favorite month and a bit of cultural zeitgeist from days past? Instead of just a spooky single, let's take a look at a creepy collection of music, one that works from ambiance and subtle hints rather than hit-you-on-the-head heavy handedness. I want to tell you about the musical companion piece to the old cult hit The X-Files, Songs In The Key of X.
There was a time in the mid 90s where my older brother was part of a CD Club. Do those even exist anymore? For those of you too young to know, you join this organization that gets you a whole slew of cheap CDs the first month, then kind of auto-mails you the next CD every month after. Usually people singed up for the crazy deal (20 CDs for 20 cents!) and then got a crummy CD mailed to them every month at cost because they were too lazy to cancel. Not us, though. We got in, got our music and got out. He got tons of good music and let me pick a couple albums with him, then we had to order I think two or three at retail price to get the full discount. He had nothing on his wish list he wanted, so I sorted through the catalog to see if anything stood out. See how quaint this was? Man, iTunes was such a game changer. Anyway, I saw a compilation that listed among its entries Foo Fighters, Filter, Rob Zombie, The Meat Puppets and R.E.M. I was also big into The X Files at the time, so I filled out the paperwork (yeah, I know) and it arrived a couple weeks later as the leaves were turning. Both the impending Fall and the tone of the album have inextricably tied Songs In The Key of X to Halloween for me, and this time every year I find myself putting it on for both enjoyment and nostalgia. Turns out it still holds up, if it appeals in any way.
The thing about this album is that it's not really a proper soundtrack to the wonderfully twisted TV show. It's more a loose collection of songs that fit in theme or tone to the paranoid and twisted, the conspiracies and cover ups. The iconic theme song, haunting as ever, opens the album. From there, though, it branches out into appropriately weird territory. Alterative legends Soul Coughing turn in the fun and bizarre 'Unmarked Helicopters', a buzzer of a song that bears all the signs of the decade. Sheryl Crow sings the heartbreaking 'Standing On The Outside', which creates an air of noirish isolation with sparse, reverb-drenched guitars and walls of harmony. It's actually a beautiful, if mournful, tune. Foo Fighters cover 'Down In The Dark' by Gary Numan, adding to the paranoia and weirdness with the hypnotic head-bobber of a track. Filter, then still known more for 'Hey Man Nice Shot' than 'Take My Picture', offer a strange and squiggly little acoustic number with 'Thanks Bro'. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds make their indelible mark with the always spooky 'Red Right Hand'. This song screams Halloween, with its chimes, plucked strings and dark, dramatic vocals.
While the paranormal and off-kilter exist in harmony here, things sometimes get more off kilter than paranormal. Show-casing the more quirky side of the show are numbers by P.M. Dawn, R.E.M.'s collaboration with William S. Burroughs or Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The Meat Puppets are all alt-pop with their lyrically relevant but sonically cheery 'Unexplained'. Elvis Costello pairs up with the ambient genius Brian Eno to make a wonderfully weird addition with 'My Dark Life', which fits both in tone and theme. Rob Zombie teamed up with progenitor Alice Cooper to deliver some blisteringly evil metal with 'Hands of Death', showing how the student became the master in their shared genre. Also, in another bizarre sign of the show's influence, rewinding the album behind the first track brought out two more songs, another from Nick Cave and Mark Snow. This under-utilized trick of the medium blew my mind when I first discovered it back in 1996, just as Chris Carter would have wanted it to.
This album, while not a soundtrack in the proper sense, is nonetheless a soundtrack to my Fall and Halloween every year. I adore the creeping and strange sounds, the light and the dark of the pop and alt, the sad and upbeat sounds playing off each other so well. The tunes may not all have appeared in the paranormal procedural but they fit the tone in spirit, creating an air of mystery for my favorite time of year. If you miss this iconic show or just want some music to give you pause while you walk through the leaves collecting on the sidewalk, go dig up this gem. There's an artist for everyone here, I guarantee it.
Yesterday's Spooky Month post got a little to real for me. I know, I wrote it - I should be able to reign it in. So how's about a whole soundtrack to my favorite month and a bit of cultural zeitgeist from days past? Instead of just a spooky single, let's take a look at a creepy collection of music, one that works from ambiance and subtle hints rather than hit-you-on-the-head heavy handedness. I want to tell you about the musical companion piece to the old cult hit The X-Files, Songs In The Key of X.
There was a time in the mid 90s where my older brother was part of a CD Club. Do those even exist anymore? For those of you too young to know, you join this organization that gets you a whole slew of cheap CDs the first month, then kind of auto-mails you the next CD every month after. Usually people singed up for the crazy deal (20 CDs for 20 cents!) and then got a crummy CD mailed to them every month at cost because they were too lazy to cancel. Not us, though. We got in, got our music and got out. He got tons of good music and let me pick a couple albums with him, then we had to order I think two or three at retail price to get the full discount. He had nothing on his wish list he wanted, so I sorted through the catalog to see if anything stood out. See how quaint this was? Man, iTunes was such a game changer. Anyway, I saw a compilation that listed among its entries Foo Fighters, Filter, Rob Zombie, The Meat Puppets and R.E.M. I was also big into The X Files at the time, so I filled out the paperwork (yeah, I know) and it arrived a couple weeks later as the leaves were turning. Both the impending Fall and the tone of the album have inextricably tied Songs In The Key of X to Halloween for me, and this time every year I find myself putting it on for both enjoyment and nostalgia. Turns out it still holds up, if it appeals in any way.
