The Album that accompanied Fight the Future‘s 1998 release featured many classics — among them my all-time favourite, Noel Gallagher’s Teotihuacan — and ended with a secret track where Chris Carter just explained the entire mythology.

Album producer David Was was the one who approached the bands to collect songs. Among the contributions that were considered but didn’t make the cut were songs by U2, No Doubt and more. Some were not selected by Was (presumably), some might not have been even written (U2?), some were submitted but retired (Nine Inch Nails).

Gathering information, it’s possible to make a set of “the ones that got away”: that album’s B-sides.

YouTube playlist (4 songs): https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCSr4nJrT0hw

Featuring:

• Nine Inch Nails: Metal (a cover of Gary Numan’s song)
• The Cranberries: What’s On My Mind
• Saint Etienne: Burnt Out Car (X-Files mix) (many mixes of this song were released; this upload was made by what looks to be a fan account but it sounds legit; the lower tempo of this mix fits with The X-Files)
• Saint Etienne: Sometimes In Winter

Now, it would be great to know which were the other songs.

Sources:

• Interview with David Was on Allstarmag, 28/Jun/1998 (archived at u2songs)
• Nine Inch Nails wiki (fan site)
• Cranberries World (fan site)
• Saint Etienne’s Continental album booklet
• With many thanks to Jury Vorotynov and Adam Silva!

Tags: fight the future, ftf, soundtrack, thexfiles

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