Mulder and Scully by Catatonia

TITLE: Mulder and Scully
ARTIST: Catatonia
CHART POSITION: 3
DATE IT WAS A HIT: January 1998

B-SIDES?: 'No Stone Unturned', 'Mantra for the Lost', 'Ex-Files' remix of 'Mulder and Scully'. For the record, they were all rubbish.

CONTEXT IN MY LIFE: I was an 18-year old X Files obsessive in my final year at high school. The show completely consumed my life, and I was also somewhat enamoured of the dour-faced David Duchovny. The X Files was absolutely massive at the time, and I'm pretty sure that Catatonia just jumped on the band-wagon - I think Cerys Matthews even admitted that she didn't watch the show. But that didn't matter to someone who collected almost anything related to the programme that was going. I think the song also appealed to me because it seemed to be about a woman who was extremely frustrated in love - a feeling that was all too familiar at the time. I remember that the video seemed to feature a rave in the Welsh countryside, which was being investigated by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson look-alikes - I think they ended up snogging on the dancefloor, too.

DISMAL OR DISCERNING?: Listening again, this is little more than a novelty song, really. And if you find Cerys Matthews' Welsh-accented warblings at all irritating (which, on virtually every other Catatonia song, I do) then you're going to hate it. But it's incredibly catchy and has an unmistakable opening guitar strum. I probably should be ashamed, but I'm not.