After Volume 1 was released on May 10, 2011 and came to fill a gap for audio(X)philes everywhere, who were waiting for this since 1996’s The Truth and the Light, we were waiting for a second volume that was then promised for 2012.

Meanwhile, Volume 1‘s 3000 copies went out of print, in August 2012. An in-depth music selection process and a busy schedule for La La Land pushed the release to 2013, first to Q1 2013, then May, then August/September. Dan Goldwasser revealed it would be a 4 CD set at the Festival Internacional De Musica De Cine (International Film Music Festival) in Cordoba, Spain, in June 2013. And eventually, the date for the release of Volume 2 was set for September 10th 2013, to coincide with the show’s 20th anniversary (thanks to a message to LLL from yours truly) — this marked the only official (i.e. not fan-initiated) XF-related event on that anniversary date.

Leading up to the release, LLL teased us with a list of the episodes that were selected for Volume 2 on Facebook and the FilmScoreMonthly message boards on September 3. LLL also promised that a Volume 3 is “most likely unless sales of Volume 2 are terrible“. For 2014? LLL also did not close the possibility of a release of a complete score for Fight the Future.

The press release for Volume 2:

THE X FILES: VOLUME TWO: LIMITED EDITION (4-CD BOX SET) LLLCD 1270
Music by Mark Snow
Limited Edition of 3000 Units

STARTS SHIPPING Sept 10th
RETAIL PRICE: $49.98

ORDER “THE X FILES: VOLUME TWO: LIMITED EDITION (4-CD BOX SET)” starting Sept 10th at 12pm PST at www.lalalandrecords.com and get your CD tray card (clamshell front cover) autographed by composer Mark Snow at no additional charge. Autographs are available while supplies last and are NOT guaranteed.

La-La Land Records and Twentieth Century Fox mark the 20th anniversary of the beloved television series THE X FILES with this second, 4-CD volume of Mark Snow’s original score to the award-winning landmark program. More than 5hrs of incredible X-Files music, complied from many episode favorites, have been assembled in this strikingly attractive collection, produced by Mark Snow, Nick Redman and Mike Joffe and mastered by James Nelson. The 40-Page CD booklet contains exclusive, in-depth liner notes from film music writer Randall Larson and features comments from show creator Chris Carter and writer/producers Frank Spotnitz, Glen Morgan and James Wong. Limited to 3000 units, the set’s CD Booklet and 4-CD Clamshell case are housed in a hard cover slipcase, in the same fashion as our acclaimed, sold-out first volume. The truth is in here – this is truly some of the most daring and enthralling music ever created for television.

The 400 autographed copies were sold within 10-15 minutes of the release!

Compared to Volume 1, the tone of the selected cues is consistently darker, where Volume 1 had a mix of dramatic/horror music with interspersed lighter/comedic cues. This makes Volume 2 a more coherent and enjoyable listening experience — but it’s not music that you might listen to hours on end! Nevertheless, there are some of my most awaited pieces here, making Vol 2 an instant favourite! Many cues are also often longer and more immersive than on Volume 1, very atmospheric and nearly more sound design than music — especially from the first two seasons.

Again, some statistics, to be compared with Volume 1 (considering all these early episodes apart from E.B.E. as stand-alones, and F. Emasculata as mythology):

For a grand running total of:

That’s about one CD per season, which is what most TV shows get nowadays. Season 4 is particularly well-treated!

In 2010, LLL had released a preliminary list of episodes they had opted for release. Sure enough, many of them are in here: Young at Heart, E.B.E., Blood, Soft Light, The Blessing Way, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, Talitha Cumi, Home, Redux II, The Red and the Black, All Souls, S.R. 819, Biogenesis, Theef, Requiem, DeadAlive, Existence, 4D.

Volume 2 is much more focused on the first, “classic”, seasons of the show, whereas the first volume was much more evenly spread: 7 episodes from the Los Angeles era in Vol 2 against 19 in Vol 1. This is also reflected in the number of photos in the booklet. Clearly, what fans have requested and what the show is associated with resides much more in these early seasons. Actually, all of the opted music from seasons 8 & 9 from the 2010 list has been included here — which makes me wonder whether future sets will focus exclusively on earlier seasons!

Vol 2 is also much more focused on the mythology: two thirds in Vol 2 against half in Vol 1. In essence, all mythology two-parters have been covered, apart from Duane Barry/Ascension and certain parts of two-parters (Apocrypha, Patient X).

Over seasons 6-8, particularly for the mythology episodes, Mark Snow mixed his music with recordings he made for Fight the Future, and whereas running time could be saved on those they are featured in both volumes (One Son, Essence). If there are more volumes down the road and we come closer to a complete music collection, we can’t complain!

Finally, apart from the episodes not yet covered, there is still some very interesting music that was not selected in the episodes already covered — it’s difficult to satisfy rabid fans! For example: Paper Clip, Grotesque, Talitha Cumi, Redux II, The Red and the Black, Requiem… more on that on a separate post.

Full tracklist follows (reordered for some tracks in seasons 8 and 9, which were out of order for reasons of listening experience):

Elsewhere on Eat The Corn

• La La Land Records : The X-Files Volume 1
• The Truth and the Light
• Massive Music Compilation: What we want for Volume Three (to be majorly updated soon!)
• 1013 Interviews Database Project: Mark Snow