The Big Express

by

XTC

Edit

"If Mummer was a gentle chug through the countryside, then The Big Express is a loco derailing itself in the rusty goods yard. An altogether more industrial affair. Slashing electric guitars, sheets of steel bass and diesel oil drums. An iron opera, steam powered and brick encased."

(Andy Partridge)

That description couldn't be more perfect, actually. Thanks Andy! Now, the songs:

"Wake Up" is a fantastic opener (love the syncopated riff); part of it wants to chop yer ears off, part of it wants you to dance.

"Shake You Donkey Up" is a raucous hoe-down; like three brits in overalls, drenched in pig slop. Country-Blues guitar riffs, loud "yeee-hawww"'s, and even a fiddle! What more could you ask for?

Other highlights on the first side include the bubblegum sea chanty "All You Pretty Girls", the poignant post-nuclear holocaust ballad "This World Over", and "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her", a sort of seafoam-molasses psychedelic reggae shuffle (loaded with lots of eerie synthesizer effects and great lyrics)

Side B opens with the insanely catchy "Small Town", pure brit-pop, ten years before Blur made it popular again.

Then, there's "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" (a nice little slam-dunk to a greedy manager), "Reign of Blows" (an awesome caterwauling mess of blues, pop, and rock with tons of reverb and other cool effects), "You're the Wish You Are I Had" (cocktail jazz + dream pop chorus), "I Remember the Sun" (wistful, Steely Dan like jazz rock), and the deranged, tempo-shifting closer "Train Running Low on Soul Coal".

There's also a few bonus songs at the end (or, in the middle if you have the earlier version). "Red Brick Dream" is the best of the crop - a hazy brew of pea-soup thick dreamy psychedelia.

Don't give up after one listen. It's loud, yes. But there's lots of great hooks buried in this thing. One of XTC's most rewarding and best albums.

Best Songs: Seagulls Screaming.., I Bought Myself a Liarbird, Reign of Blows, You're the Wish You Are I Had, Train Running Low on Soul Coal.

XTC are a band of many ideas and on "The Big Express" there

are alot of 'em.The opener "Wake Up" and the Irish pub sounding

"All Of You Pretty Girls" and especially "Train Running On Soul

Coal" make there point for this album-it's about making a great

deal of noise.Not in the obnoxious heavy metal sense but with

the industrial kling-klanging of train tracks,building sights,

etc.But the aforementioned songs are about the only fully formed

ones on the album-on just about everything elese sound effects

of one sort or another make up for non-existant songcraft.Not the

first place to discover XTC,mabye not even the second but a big

fan should check it out-it's got a handful of good stuff.