Customer Reviews

The Truth And The Light: Music From The X-Files (Television Series)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Mulder!" "Scully!" - Dazzling, dizzying, terrifying, hypnotic: what a show! One of the many things that makes 'The X-Files' undisputably the greastest show in television history is the music. Mark Snow's masterpieces of audio-understatement add immeasurably to the atmosphere and ambience that keep us on the edge of our seat, week after week. But how little of it we actually get to hear! I didn't realise just how much I was missing until I bought this CD. Suddenly I was able to appreciate the show even more... No-one who calls themselves an X-Phile can do without this album. Buy it. Buy it now.

(And no, I don't work for Fox, et al 8)

The music of Mark Snow helped make The X-Files one of the most engaging, remarkable shows in television history, yet it is easy to overlook the importance of the show's consistently amazing weekly score, what with all of the intrigues and dark mysteries challenging Agents Mulder and Scully. With this album, one gets the chance to concentrate on the music in and of itself, albeit laced with numerous bits of dialogue, and the true power of Snow's genius is impossible to dismiss or ignore. I'm quite out of my element when it comes to discussing this music; I suppose it is best classified as electronic music with all sorts of funky nuances I won't even attempt to describe because nothing I could say would truly do them justice. These tracks are actual pieces used in The X-Files over the course of its first two seasons, and so it should come as no real surprise that their exceptional ethereal quality easily transports one's imagination into the cryptic world haunted by the indefatigable Agent Mulder and his faithful friend and loyal partner Agent Scully. This album is amazingly evocative of the television show I and so many others became much more than addicted to. Proof of my addiction is the fact I bought this album; generally, I dislike music without singing. This, however, is much more than a musical score; it is undeniably X-Files in its very nature, and as such I really and truly enjoy listening to it. It's not something I pop in the CD player on a regular basis, but it is just what the doctor ordered when I am in a certain dark yet inquisitive mood and could well serve as excellent music to study by. You don't even have to listen to this album; all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let Mark Snow's musical score transport you on a trip of imagination colored by haunting, cosmic dissonance to a world where truth is no longer out there somewhere but is instead inside your very head.

I was an avid fan of the earlier seasons of the X-Files and bought this CD because I love the music. Almost every track on this CD has dialogue from the show dubbed over it. What gives? A soundtrack is suppose to let you enjoy the music out of context. If I want to hear the music with dialogue added, I can just watch the show. I give this 2 stars because even though the music is excellent, I don't like being forced to hear Mulder and Scully talk over it.

As an avid fan of the X Files, I figured I really needed to own this cd. I'm glad I bought it, but I have a few issues with it. For one thing, I'm not sure about the continuity. In most cases it plays from track to track with no pauses, so it seems to flow together. However, the dialogue over the tracks doesn't seem to have any logical order to it in my opinion. It all seems a bit random. There are pieces of Duane Barry talking, pieces of Scully referring to her abduction - which do fit together, but not quite in the way I would have liked to hear. I also just wanted MORE of something the whole time I listened...I'm not sure of what, but something was lacking. I am going to buy the movie soundtrack and see if that has more of what I was looking for.

For the most part I was very happy with the cd. I enjoy the dialogue over the music, since it is inseparable from the show itself and I would never want it to be separated. For all you classical musicians out there, I heard very heavy influences from Joseph Schwantner, which I had never really noticed just from watching the show - that was interesting.

All in all, I recommend this cd to anyone who is a serious X Phile. It's kind of neat to hear the music without the images on the screen.

Mark Snow's music for "The X-Files" is the best music for TV there has ever been! It's beautiful and dark, gothic and thrilling. But this is also music that is drive by the power of emotion and visual images. Snow has created a collection of work that takes one on a wonderous journey of sound and feeling. This music has mixes of terror, excitment, and a sort of spiritual edge. I shall cherish this music for all time. It is a masterpiece.

I know this is a special CD not only because it's music is great but also the way Mark Snow performs it. From head to toe we hear a fluent melody with the interesting dialogue. It composes lots of best sections from the original X-Files soundtrack, and edits into a wonderful msuic. At the end, we also hear a special, rap version X-File main theme, which satisfy all sorts of audience, shows the unique of this CD: The Truth and The Light.

The music on this CD is great - an excellent companion to the show. But be sure not to miss the "Explanation of the X-Files" as read by Chris Carter. After the last song, continue letting your CD play. After about 10 minutes of dead air, Chris Carter comes on to explain the whole story - Mulder's sister, the black oil, smoking man, etc. This overview is worth the price of the CD!

Let me start by saying that I adore this CD. Mark Snow has a true talent for creating music with enigmatic undercurrents, that intuitive sensation that there is SOMETHING MORE, something on another level that you can FEEL, but not really DEFINE. I'm a technical/ marketing writer, and I often slide this CD into my computer, clamp on my headphones, and immerse myself in reliving the X-Files experience. I detach from my workplace surroundings, and the writer's block goes away. As the words flow, my mind wanders from the scenes I remember from the show to new eerie vistas in creative imaginings of my own. The voiceovers, which some other reviewers have disparaged, are not interferences; they are part of the memory, part of the mood. If you truly were in sync with the whole X-Files experience, you will treasure this CD. I have all the X-Files CDs: The Truth And The Light: Music From The X-Files, The X-Files: Original Motion Picture Score, The X-Files: The Album - Fight The Future, and Songs In The Key Of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files. Only the first two are Mark's compositions, as is The Snow Files: Film Music of Mark Snow. They are all good, but only Mark's CDs have that ethereal quality. I wish they would release more of his music from the show! (The-X-Files-is-a-show, with-music-by-Mark Snow...)

I've had my copy of this album almost since the day it came out.... It has been in heavy rotation on my hi-fi ever since, and I am now waiting for a second such album from Mark Snow.
The music is intense, atmospheric, and evocative of the show. I even remember which music goes with which scene, which might not be particularly surprising given that I'm an obsessive X-Phile with a complete collection of the show. (I programmed my VCR to tape episodes off the air for all nine seasons. I'm collecting the DVD boxed sets as well. And from time to time, I still watch and enjoy my favorites.)
Play this album when you're feeling paranoid. Play it when you're feeling spooked, or when you're feeling Spooky.
Play it late at night, when it's dark and you're all alone and you can't sleep. Play it loud so the bass seems oppressive, so the clanking percussion sounds like the Syndicate is on your heels, so those strange screaming voices in the mix make you look around to see where the monster is hiding.
Play it when you want to remember the difference between radiant, unchanging Memory and mere false History; what it is to live with a fragile faith built on the vague ether of a memory from an experience you can neither prove nor explain; that They only have one policy, Deny Everything.
About the only flaw in this album, if I can call it a flaw, is that for some reason the track titles are in Latin. I had to work with my father's old Latin-English pocket dictionary to translate them. (In the process I found a spelling mistake: the word for "merchandise" should be "mercatura", not "mercutura".)
But the word "kyrie", the title of the last track, drove me crazy for a while, until I remembered it is actually Greek. How appropriate, for The X-Files.

A great soundtrack for a kinky encounter with a new beau or an out-of-body experience, THE TRUTH AND THE LIGHT combines Mark Snow's instrumental background music with snippets of dialogue from actual episodes. This was the first X-files-related soundtrack produced, and the material it touches on comes from the first two seasons.

Snow's music from this period is dynamic and fluid. Moments range from bold to soft, but always the pace is pushing forward, relentlessly moving forward like Mulder's continual search for the truth. The music and spoken inclusions have been edited to have an episodic flow of their own, so it's not like there are comments that you "don't get." The spoken bits are slight enough that people who enjoy dark ambient may like this.