The Big Express was XTC's album 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. The seventh track, "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" is about their former manager, Ian Reid.
The singles released from the album were "All You Pretty Girls" (released September 3, 1984 and reached No. 55 on the UK singles chart), "This World Over" (released October 29, 1984) and "Wake Up" (released January 28, 1985). The album reached No. 38 on the UK album chart and No. 181 on the U.S. Billboard album charts.
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".
Track listing[]
- All songs written by Andy Partridge, except where noted.
- "Wake Up" (Colin Moulding) – 4:40
- "All You Pretty Girls" – 3:40
- "Shake You Donkey Up" – 4:19
- "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her" – 3:50
- "This World Over" – 5:37
- "(The Everyday Story Of) Smalltown" – 3:53
- "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" – 2:49
- "Reign of Blows (Vote No Violence!)" – 3:27
- "You're the Wish You Are I Had" – 3:17
- "I Remember the Sun" (Moulding) – 3:10
- "Train Running Low on Soul Coal" – 5:19
CD bonus tracks[]
- "Red Brick Dream" – 2:03
- "Washaway" (Moulding) – 3:01
- "Blue Overall" – 4:33