“Mulder and Scully” by Catatonia

"Mulder and Scully" was the song that broke Catatonia wide open, a January 1998 single from their second album, International Velvet, on Blanco y Negro. Cerys Matthews and Mark Roberts wrote it, and the band produced it with Tommy Danvers. It name-checks the X-Files' paranormal-chasing FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, though Matthews has said she was never a devoted fan; the show's basic setup simply fit the idea she was after.

It was meant to be the album's first single but got held back by events beyond the Welsh band's control, and arrived as the second single instead. It reached number three in the UK, their highest showing there, and became their first US single. Critics mostly liked the playing but found the pop-culture references jarring.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.