A Review of "Songs In The Key Of X" by Joey Lindstrom
(who gave it 10 out of 10)
July 16th 1996


This albums features music from the television series "The X Files", as well as several songs that were "inspired by" the show. As of May 1996, the plan is to feature every new song on the album in an upcoming episode of the show.

I must admit, I had one reason and one reason alone for purchasing this album during my recent trip to the UK. The fourth track on this CD is a cover of Gary Numan's "Down In The Park", by The Foo Fighters.

As to this one song, it's a strong, heavy-guitar rendition of a classic song. Exceptionally well done, although there are some lyrical changes that are a tad puzzling. I don't quite know how "The X Files" could possibly have inspired a song to have been written in 1979 (there must be a Time Travel X File in a vault somewhere), but it's here and will appear on the show. This means that this song will NOT appear on the upcoming Numan tribute album as originally scheduled.

What I was not expecting was just how good the rest of this album would turn out to be! From "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (the song that inspired Chris Carter to put this album together) to Elvis Costello & Brian Eno's "My Dark Life" to Soul Coughing's "Unmarked Helicopters", this album (unlike Techno Army) really lives up to its name. The only weak point in it is the fifth track, "Fuck Me Kitten"... this is a previously-released REM track but this time around they've got William S. Burroughs (an early Numan influence) voicing the song lyrics... and it simply does *NOT* work.

But one not-so-hot song isn't enough to lower my opinion of this album: it's remarkably well-done from one end to the other, and is a must-buy for Numan fans and non-fans alike.