XTC – Big Express

"Wake Up" - Sorry Andy, Colin wins this round.

Love the transition from Seagulls to This World Over.

I only got this album recently, after some anticipation, and was disappointed: not many hummable ditties here. Reminds me a bit of Gaucho and The Top: insular, half-mad albums representing the end of something in the band's development at the time. Only not as good.

nothing here to vote for

"I Remember The Sun". I'll probably be the only voter, but it's one of XTC's greatest songs ever, and probably Colin's best that wasn't a hit. It's a perfect fusion of Steely Dan and Captain Beefheart musically.

I defend Colin's songs a lot but mainly because it allowed Andy to go ga-ga on guitar, even in the studio-only era for whatever reason. This track is a great example of this.

Second choice would have been "You're The Wish You Are I Had"

"All You Pretty Girls". There aren't a lot of good songs on this.

It's better than "Go 2" though, that much I'll give it.

I think I might have to agree with Geir on this one - I mean, choosing "All You Pretty Girls" - but I haven't heard this album in years, I can't remember "Reign of Blows" at all

Agreed, this album suffers a lot from David Lord's rather period production values and the dreaded LinnDrum overkill but I still rate most of the songs.

I think I might be the only sole voter for Red Brick Dream, but I've always loved that song, certainly in my top 5.

'You're the Wish You Are I Had' is the best song here.

This album always sounded so dreary to me, and Go 2 and Wasp Star are the only albums I like less. I think it must be the production, because the individual songs tend to get stuck in my head, but I never want to hear the album. I'd rather hear the versions in my head than the real ones.

I voted "This World Over" - just realized that it's a perfect song to go in that best X song Y never wrote, X being the Police obv. I kind of glanced over "Seagulls" when I was voting though, might have thought about it more if I'd seen it. "Seagulls" is pretty much as far out writing as the band ever did while still remaining dead catchy.

ended up voting for "You're the Wish You are I Had", but I think there are a lot of great songs here: Wake Up, Reign of Blows, Liarbird, I Remember the Sun. I used to cringe at the production on this record, but now the period-isms don't bother me so much, and it's opened up as arguably the most interestingly produced XTC record for me. The songs themselves I find super interesting; this was the last record before their psychedelic/beatles fetishes started taking over, so the songs are pushing a lot of boundaries, always threatening to stop being pop songs at all, and ending up in a similar art-pop world as, say, kate bush's the dreaming.

I also think Oranges & Lemons is a way lesser version of this record.

Love this record. Strangely, many don't, it seems.

Nothing compares to "Wake Up".

Voted for "This World Over," ultimately. I can hum it .

I drag this LP out every year or two to see if I can learn to like it, as I did with Oranges & Lemons, but it remains my least favorite XTC of the ones I own. Agree with the description "dreary." It's just no fun.

I love Go 2!!!

Well, the album was supposed to be dreary, and the band thought this was going to be their last album (like Mummer and Skylarking). When you end an album like "Train Running Low On Soul Coal", well OF COURSE it's going to be a dreary album. That's the point! You don't have to like it for that reason, but I like this album because it was very intentionally mechanic and dreary.

Well this is a lovely excuse for me to listen to the whole thing again, which is something I haven't done in oh...years. But I already know that nothing beats "This World Over". That song is way up there in the entire XTC catalogue, methinks.

I don't recall this album being all that dreary, actually.

Can't believe the negativity! This is the hidden gem in XTC's canon, the logical partner to the song-by-song strength of Black Sea. It's so good stem-to-stern I have a difficult time choosing one. Just listen to "Wake Up" on headphones and I guarantee you'll be mighty impressed.

I'm torn between "Wake Up" (non-dated-sounding orchestra hits at the end!) and "Smalltown" -- the latter sounds like the most fun they'd had playing as a band in a long time.

But that horrible drum machine on "All You Pretty Girls" and "Seagulls" ruins those for me.

I also think Oranges & Lemons is a way lesser version of this record.

OTMFM

Well, the album was supposed to be dreary, and the band thought this was going to be their last album (like Mummer and Skylarking). When you end an album like "Train Running Low On Soul Coal", well OF COURSE it's going to be a dreary album.

I've never thought it was designed to be a dreary album, except maybe lyrically. "Train Running Low" an obvious exception, that song is meant to sound dreary in all senses. But stuff like "Bless You Pretty Girls", "Shake You Donkey Up", "Smalltown" - I got the sense it was supposed to be shiny, bouncy pop in the vein of "Supergirl" or "Mayor of Simpleton", but just doesn't have the same polish that their later material has. I could see many people viewing that as a strength.

I think I'm going to relisten to the album though, it's been a long time since I heard it.

Don't really like this album very much either. But I voted for "Train Running Low on Soul Coal" for some reason, I'm not sure why, even though I probably enjoy "Wake Up", "Smalltown" and "Wish" more, I remember the final track more fondly.

Seagulls gets my vote.

This was the first XTC album I ever bought (on cassette, from Columbia House) and seriously listened to. At the time, I knew nothing about the band beyond the fact that "Senses Working Overtime" would occasionally show up on MTV and I loved that.

It was, at first, a maddeningly bleak and unfriendly listen. All the songs sounded choppy and harsh, and while I could hear the melodies and harmonies, they didn't make any real sense to me. Nothing caught my ear. But, for some reason or another, I listened to it a LOT (also Mummer, which I picked up at around the same time). Eventually, it just opened up for me. The previously bricklike rhythms and off-putting hooks started to sound exactly right. I still love it, though the production is awfully dated.

And Go2 is fantastic.

TS: grunts on "Train Running Low..." vs programmed Fairlight donkey on Kate Bush's "Get Out of My House."

It's meant to sound like Swindon's dead locomotive industry, hence the harsh steel production.

This was one of my favourite XTCs for years, despite the songs not being up to previous or later standards. You're the Wish wins for being sublime.

"All You Pretty Girls" has the better music video!

And probably is the best song (but it's close).

Crash Test Dummies covered that song! Ugh.

That cover is one of the best things on that XTC tribute. Then again, that XTC tribute is pretty bad.

there use to be this band called "Whisky Screaming Drink Me, Drink Me" which i thought was funny but never got reference until now...

That cover is one of the best things on that XTC tribute. Then again, that XTC tribute is pretty bad.

-- Mackro Mackro, Saturday, 7 June 2008 01:50 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Shame, becauuse Yazbek's other work is great.

"Wake Up", now that I listen to it again, sounds oddly like a lost Weird Al original from the 80s.

red brick dream really shoulda been on the original release, great song and it's short.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Relistened over the weekend and read along on the lyric sleeve, which I don't think I had ever done. I guess I do like a lot of the songwriting. But man, that Linn drum, blecch...

I've never gotten the whole allergy to "the horrible Linn drum sound" everyone is talking about with this album. It's like the fact that this came out in 1984 and *sounds* like it is a BAD thing. Sheesh.

Imagine the same conversation with New Order fans, and people bitching about "that damn 80s sequencer". It would sound absurd. The whole Linn-bitching here sounds absurd to me.

No – the problem is that XTC haven't written songs that integrate the Linn drum effectively.

Well, agree to disagree then

I don't see how "Reign of Blows" or "Train Running Low On Soul Coal" could have been more effective without that big Linn drum sound. Maybe these songs aren't popular with fans. But I can't think of any other Big Express songs where the drum sound overpowered everything else.

The Big Express is a loud album that often fills up a lot of space, and the drum sound is hardly the only suspect.

For me, it's that Terry Chambers -- a ridiculously great drummer -- is not adequately replaced by that monolithic Linn thump.

Now, see, "This World Over" uses percussion really well. The use of space is commensurate with the distance between the singer and the world he's not quite ready to give up on.

I don't mind "Train..." either.

I'm not trying to say "hey guys, the Linn drum RAWKED" or anything. Just sayin' that the qualities of The Big Express kinda obfuscate any issues I may or may not have with the drum sound, that's all. It just seems like such a small thing compared to all the other experimentation that's happening on the album that's equally abrasive (in a good way.)

For me, it's that Terry Chambers -- a ridiculously great drummer -- is not adequately replaced by that monolithic Linn thump.

I think everyone agrees the band weren't the same in the percussion dept. since Terry left. Personally, I thought the percussion on Mummer or Skylarking sounded waaay worse than on The Big Express, overall.

On the XTC fans blog I remember reading that a lot of the songs are actually Pete Phipps drumming slongside the Linn or even without it. Maybe it's just David Lord's slightly period production values that are to blame, he did Peter Gabriel 4 which sounds pretty harsh and mechanistic too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Broad preferences for an album that everyone hates.

GOODDAMN!: "I Remember The Sun" highest charter with the singles.. Wow.

BADDAMN!: No votes for Smalltown. :(

how can you NOT hum "All You Pretty Girls"????

'Train Running Low on Soul Coal' would have ultimately got my vote. I love this record, and it's amusing to read criticisms of the drumming above. A lot of the album is actually live drumming! 'Wake Up' is all real drums, 'Soul Coal' is Linn on the verses, all the drum fills and the chorus are all live.

its a toss up between "DOODLEANG DOODELANG, DANG DANG!" and "A train running low on soul coal/AIEEEE! AIEEEE!!!"

I can't believe 'Smalltown' got no votes, actually.

The train noises on "Soul Coal" are done by Curt and Roland of Tears For Fears!

"This World Over" conveyed a palpable fear when it came out at the peak of the Reagan years.