The Big Express

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
Chicago Tribune	^[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[4]
The Village Voice	B^[5]

The Big Express is the seventh studio album by the English band XTC, released in 1984. It was one of XTC's harder-edged albums, in contrast to the pastoral Mummer and Skylarking which were released in sequence with it. Initial copies of the LP were released in a round sleeve. Working titles considered for the album were Coalface, Head of Steam, Shaking Skin House, Bastard Son of Hard Blue Rayhead, The Known World, and Bull with the Golden Guts.^[6]

The singles released from the album were "All You Pretty Girls" (released 3 September 1984 and reached No. 55 on the UK Singles Chart),^[7] "This World Over" (released 29 October 1984) and "Wake Up" (released 28 January 1985). The album reached No. 38 on the UK Albums Chart,^[7] and No. 178 on the U.S. Billboard 200.^[8]

The band made a big-budget promotional video for "All You Pretty Girls", and appeared on the BBC-TV programme Saturday Superstore with lip-synch performances of "This World Over" and "All You Pretty Girls".

The seventh track, "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" is about their former manager, Ian Reid. The fourth track, "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her" was written by Partridge on the band's mellotron. It inspired the name of the Japanese indie rock band, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her.  

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Andy Partridge, except where noted.

UK LP: V 2325

Side A
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Wake Up"	Colin Moulding	4:40
2.	"All You Pretty Girls"		3:40
3.	"Shake You Donkey Up"		4:19
4.	"Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her"		3:50
5.	"This World Over"		5:37

Side B
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"The Everyday Story of Smalltown"		3:53
2.	"I Bought Myself a Liarbird"		2:49
3.	"Reign of Blows"		3:27
4.	"You're the Wish You Are I Had"		3:17
5.	"I Remember the Sun"	Moulding	3:10
6.	"Train Running Low on Soul Coal"		5:19

2001 Remastered CD: CDVX 2325

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Wake Up"	Colin Moulding	4:40
2.	"All You Pretty Girls"		3:40
3.	"Shake You Donkey Up"		4:19
4.	"Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her"		3:50
5.	"This World Over"		5:37
6.	"The Everyday Story of Smalltown"		3:53
7.	"I Bought Myself a Liarbird"		2:49
8.	"Reign of Blows"		3:27
9.	"You're the Wish You Are I Had"		3:17
10.	"I Remember the Sun"	Moulding	3:10
11.	"Train Running Low on Soul Coal"		5:19
12.	"Red Brick Dream"		2:01
13.	"Washaway"	Moulding	3:01
14.	"Blue Overall"		4:26

Personnel

Andy Partridge – vocals, guitar, Linn LM-1
Colin Moulding – vocals, bass
Dave Gregory – guitar, keyboard, piano

with:

Peter Phipps – drums, percussion
Stuart Gordon – violin, viola
Annie Huchrak – female choir voice on "Wake Up"
Steve Saunders – euphonium on "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her"
Phil Thornalley – mix engineer at RAK Studio Two

Chart performance

The Big Express spent two weeks on the UK album charts, reaching No. 38.^[9] In the U.S., the album spent 7 weeks on the Billboard 200 album charts and reached its peak position of No. 178 in December 1984.^[8]

Album

Year	Chart	Position	Citation
1984	UK Official Charts	38	^[9]
1984	US Billboard 200	178	^[8]

References

↑ Woodstra, Chris. "The Big Express – XTC". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
↑ Kot, Greg (3 May 1992). "The XTC Legacy: An Appraisal". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
↑ Frere-Jones, Sasha (2004). "XTC". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. pp. 890–92. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
↑ Christgau, Robert (25 June 1985). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
↑ "XTC on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
1 2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 612. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
1 2 3 "Billboard 200: XTC". Billboard. 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
1 2 "UK Official Charts: The Big Express". Official Charts Company. 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.

XTC
Andy Partridge Colin Moulding Barry Andrews Terry Chambers Dave Gregory
Studio albums	White Music Go 2 Drums and Wires Black Sea English Settlement Mummer The Big Express 25 O'Clock Skylarking Psonic Psunspot Oranges & Lemons Nonsuch Apple Venus Volume 1 Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)
EPs	3D - EP
Compilations	Waxworks: Some Singles 1977–1982 Beeswax: Some B-Sides 1977–1982 The Compact XTC Chips from the Chocolate Fireball Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80 Rag and Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts and Leftovers Drums and Wireless: BBC Radio Sessions 77–89 Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977–92 Upsy Daisy Assortment Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions
Box sets	Coat of Many Cupboards Apple Box
Demos Remixes	Homespun Homegrown Instruvenus Waspstrumental
Singles	"Statue of Liberty" "Life Begins at the Hop" "Making Plans for Nigel" "Generals and Majors" "Senses Working Overtime" "Wonderland" "Dear God" "Mayor of Simpleton" "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead"
Related articles	Discography The Dukes of Stratosphear Urgh! A Music War A Testimonial Dinner: The Songs of XTC Fuzzy Warbles Take Away / The Lure of Salvage

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