The Big Express

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a b c Bernhardt, Todd; Gregory, Dave (24 February 2008). "Dave remembers 'Smalltown' ". Chalkhills. Nearly every single song on here (with the exception of This World Over, and maybe I Remember the Sun) are insane dense miniature sound worlds of pop songs. Played up up up, booming like crazy, and pummeling you with themselves. It's like walking into a room of full grown dogs that act like puppies and just being enthusiastically body slammed by them one after the other. And some of them are huskies, so they're constantly noisy too. If that sounds like a miserable experience? Consider this all tampered by these truly being some grand songs under it all. And distinct ones! Because all this noisy hubbub isn't exactly random, there's some reason behind it all! Album and Additional Mixes by Steven Wilson [Dolby Atmos TrueHD 7.1, DTS HD-MA 5.1, and 24/96 LPCMStereo], 2023 Instrumental Mix [24/96 LPCM Stereo] [00:54:18] + [00:53:57] I Bought Myself a Liarbird" is about Ian Reid, the band's former manager. [40] The title is a pun on " lyrebird". [1] In the 1998 XTC biography Song Stories, the song's entry simply states: "Due to a legal arrangement with their former management, XTC is unable to discuss the lyrical content of this song!" [39] "Reign of Blows" [ edit ]

The Big Express is the seventh entry in the band’s “ Surround Sound Series” reissue campaign that began in 2013 with 1992’s Nonsuch. These releases have long been championed by immersive music fans due to their comprehensive and affordability nature, with each of the two-disc sets containing a Blu-Ray disc with new stereo & 5.1 surround sound renditions by mixing maestro Steven Wilson.

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Mummer had sounded flat and slightly lifeless but for The Big Express and in keeping with the themes prevalent on the album XTC opted for a harsher, mettalic edgy sound that recalled earlier works like Go2 and Drums And Wires yet managed to still sound unique, exciting and new. Thanks to it's production and choice of subject matter The Big Express may well be XTC's artiest album, a fully formed concept whose musical arrangements and production perfectly mirror it's lyrical content. The heart of "The Big Express" lies in its captivating storytelling and autobiographical elements, reflecting the hopes, dreams, and memories of the band members. Join Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and Dave Gregory as they invite listeners into their world through a vibrant post-punk soundscape. music’ is a phrase that seems to conjure up some very negative images nowadays. Yet as all Louder Than War readers will know, this was actually a hugely creative period in British music with a range of outstanding albums delivered. One of the most underrated in my opinion, and one that never dates because it floats above any genre categorisation, is XTC’s The Big Express. It doesn’t need this article to make the case for this band being our most undervalued, the evidence is repeatedly clear in a string of classic, innovative and hugely influential albums. It’s 30 years this week since The Big Express was released, in some ways a product of its time, but in many others, completely timeless.

After listening to the new 5.1 & Dolby Atmos mixes, it becomes abundantly clear that a traditional two-channel stereo soundstage was simply not enough to accurately express the band’s grandiose vision for this album. Though it’s obviously a retrofit surround sound experience, The Big Express translates so seamlessly into these immersive formats that it almost sounds like it was recorded with multichannel reproduction in mind. impression on Andy. He hadn't had a musical guru before now. David Lord could hold his own in any musical conversation and piqued Andy's interests in unexplored musical areas." [12] Moulding was not as effused and said he was unable to relate to Lord on a musical level. [13] XTC subsequently negotiated a deal that allowed them to work as much as they want on their next album at his studio. [8] In April 1984, about a month into the new album sessions, the group learned that ex-manager Ian Reid had incurred them an outstanding value-added tax bill of several hundred thousand pounds, and they immediately pursued litigation that would last for the next five years. [14] David Lord adds: "This story about me turning down the Beatles as 'not serious musicians' is nonsense! I think it grew from something I told Andy once - as a music student in the days when 'Sargeant Pepper' was being recorded, a number of us were invited to be part of the cheering crowd at Abbey Road; sadly I was already committed elsewhere and couldn't make it! That's all!" The Big Express was XTC’s seventh studio album, originally released in October 1984 through Virgin Records. The Big Express is quite possibly XTC's most polarizing LP, unlike much of their work from that dreaded decade the 80's The Big Express actually sounds like a quintessential 80's album, all fairlight synths and Linn drum machines, yet it also remains quintessentially XTC, however it's harsh, metallic, abstract production manages to make it sound fairly unique when compared to other records made in 1985, the album seems to be a celebration of the industrial age and more pertinently the passing of the steam train that Swindon, their home town, existed for and the subsequent loss of income and personality that would engulf such a place due to it's passing. This 80s sound puts off a lot of fans but dig deeper and The Big Express reveals itself as one of XTC deepest albums. If Mummer had been a tentative step towards experimental studio based recordings The Big Express is a full on aural assault.

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Dave Gregory – guitar, Yamaha CP-80 electric grand piano, Mellotron, Prophet-5 and Roland JX-3P synthesizers, E-mu Emulator a b Bernhardt, Todd; Partridge, Andy (17 February 2008). "Andy discusses 'The Everyday Story of Smalltown' ". Chalkhills. a b Bernhardt, Todd; Partridge, Andy (4 March 2007). "Andy discusses 'All You Pretty Girls' ". Chalkhills. Andy Partridge (Part 2) - Episode 27". YouTube. The ProgCast With Gregg Bendian . Retrieved 24 February 2022.

a b Bernhardt, Todd; Partridge, Andy (11 August 2008). "Andy discusses 'You're the Wish You Are I Had' ". Chalkhills. Reign of Blows (Vote No Violence) takes us deep into the reality of a world where super powers still fought each other, but just used other countries to do it in. “And iron maidens will slam, and by the half-light of burning republics, Joe Stalin looks just like Uncle Sam” captures the era perfectly and with a screaming guitar and thumping drums, you almost feel as if your pleasant train journey through the shires has suddenly taken a nasty diversion through the US invasion of Grenada. a b c d e f g h i j k l m Jennings, Dave (18 October 2014). "XTC: The Big Express – A Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration – album reappraisal". Louder Than War . Retrieved 24 October 2018. In late 1983, XTC released the holiday single " Thanks for Christmas" under the pseudonym Three Wise Men. It was produced by David Lord, owner of Crescent Studios in Bath, who impressed the band with the story that he had turned down an offer to arrange the Beatles' " She's Leaving Home" (1967). [11] He met Partridge while working as an engineer on The Naked Shakespeare. According to biographer Neville Farmer, Lord was "a world's away from XTC", having turned down the Beatles offer because he believed the Beatles were not serious musicians, and "made a deepa b Kot, Greg (3 May 1992). "The XTC Legacy: An Appraisal". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 22 June 2016. They no longer played live, the punishing schedule they’d endured for years had led to Andy Partridge suffering a stress related illness and taking the brave but creditable decision to quit touring for self-preservation. In a separate development, powerhouse drummer Terry Chambers had quit to start a new life in Australia, which left Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory to operate a guerrilla rearguard in defence of musical innovation from their Swindon hide-out. This they have managed to do successfully into 21st Century, producing along the way rare album gems such as 1986’s Skylarking and 1999’s Apple Venus (which I think Andy Partridge would nominate as their best) and successfully going ‘on strike’ against their Virgin label. We play the songs much too loud Mark Fisher, Mark Reed, David White in What Do You Call That Noise? The XTC Podcast Products Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her is without doubt one of XTC weirdest songs of their entire career, built around an odd off kilter melody line played on a Euphonium, Andy's tale of lost chances never seems to go anywhere and circles around itself in a perfect echo of the characters hesitation, only once side stepping to glimpse what could be, it's a simply brilliant but wonderfully odd piece of music and incredibly underrated by the bands legion of fans. Equally strong but less challenging is the sorrowful sigh of This World Over's post apocalypse, again lyrical content, arrangement and production combine to perfection.

By the standards he had set for himself over the preceding three albums, Colin wasn't on top form for Mummer. Even though he only gets two credits here, he more than makes up for it. "I Remember The Sun" inverts the theme of his English Settlement b-side "Blame The Weather" in brilliant fashion. Andy does many thing's better than his partner in rhyme but Colin is, I think, the master of nostalgia. He also pens the explosive opener, one of his best singles, which employs a choir to rub the sleep from the eyes of the listener and set them up for the rest of the record.There's always one isn't there? But I think I can line up the world's underground army of XTC fans and find that the majority of them would find some form of agreement with that statement here. Exactly how they would explain it would vary, as for some it would be the tough rewarding one, and others would see it as a fussy messy dud. Certainly at the time in 1984 the critical opinion was like the latter, and the commercial opinion was that it sold poorly. In both regards this mirrored Mummer's fate before it, though the two albums are really very different. Honestly I still can't really figure out why people have anything against poor little Mummer. But Big Express? Aw, this time I get it. Bernhardt, Todd; Partridge, Andy (11 May 2008). "Andy discusses 'Rook' ". Chalkhills . Retrieved 30 October 2018. The Big Express (liner notes). XTC. Virgin Records. 1984. {{ cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) ( link) XTC in 1984 were not the chart-busting force they had been from 1978-1982 when their brand of angular but highly infectious pop regularly graced the charts. What many critics consider their finest album, the excellent English Settlement, had been released two years previously but since then there had been a few changes. The Everyday Story of Smalltown" introduces side two with the sounds of kazoo and drums. [3] Partridge described the Swindon-inspired song as "all autobiographical", including the mention of a milkman who "lift[ed] his foot off [the] accelerator. It woke me up one morning and I thought, That's got to go into a bloody song." [39] Its sampled brass band marked the band's first use of an E-mu Emulator. [23] One of the guitar lines was taken from the Beatles' " Fixing a Hole" (1967). Gregory was enthused with the song and hoped it would have been released as a single, later opining that it was "twatted by a lousy mix". He said: "The big finale of the song features one of Andy's soon-to-be-favourite production techniques-- the over-layering of earlier vocal and instrumental themes as a counterpoint to the main chorus. It clatters off in jubilant canonic style, neatly cross-fading into the languid guitar introduction to 'I Bought Myself A Liarbird' -- a nice moment." [28] "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" [ edit ]