Much of the album showcased the band's psychedelic influences through its reliance on Mellotron, a tape-based sampling keyboard popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and effects such as reverse echo and phasing.

It was released in August 1983 after several months of delays due to the band's creative difference with producer Steve Nye and Virgin Records[4] and became the group's lowest-charting album to date.

[6] Bassist Colin Moulding thought that "when we came back from America after our aborted tour of 1982 ... people like Spandau Ballet had moved onto the scene; new groups were coming up and there was no place for us.

"[7] Dissatisfied with the downturn in their career, drummer Terry Chambers quit the group early in the Mummer sessions to take care of his wife and newborn child in Australia.

[4] He summarized his feelings at the time: "We're about to make another [album] that probably won't sell very well, and Virgin are getting fed up with us and starting to grumble about potentially not carrying on with us ...

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).

[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.

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!

[16] Working titles included Coalface, Head of Steam, Shaking Skin House, Bastard Son of Hard Blue Rayhead, The Known World, Bull with the Golden Guts,[17] Mindless Sax and Violins, and Under the Rusting North Star.

"[23] Tears for Fears, who were recording Songs from the Big Chair (1985) at a nearby studio in the area, loaned the group an E-mu Emulator.

[30] Mixing was completed in early August by producer Phil Thornalley at RAK Studio Two; Lord left the project a month earlier to fulfill a contract with the Europeans, a British band.

[33] One of the songs he wrote around this time was "Your Gold Dress", something he felt could possibly be worked into a 1960s psychedelic style, an idea that XTC would soon explore with the Dukes of Stratosphear side project.

"[23] To write the song, Moulding started with a three-note piano figure, which he then overdubbed with two guitar riffs: "The track didn't really happen until David Lord got hold of it.

[1] Partridge met Wexler at the US premiere of the 1980 film Times Square and remembered: "I didn't want to think of it as love at first sight, because I'd only been married for something like six months, so it was a bit painful, you know?

[23] "This World Over" is a song protesting the use of nuclear weapons[3] as a reaction to recent speeches by Ronald Reagan, which instigated Partridge's fears of another Cold War.

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.

[52] XTC appeared on Channel Four's Play at Home programme performing an acoustic version of "Train Running Low on Soul Coal".

[56] Within weeks of the album's release, the band's finances were depleted and further payments of advancements and royalties were frozen on account of the Reid litigation, forcing the group to subsist on short-term loans from Virgin.

[57] The second and last Dukes album, Psonic Psunspot (1987), included "Shiny Cage", the Moulding song previously rejected for The Big Express.

[58] A reviewer for CMJ New Music Report wrote that the album was "mostly brilliant" and expressed hope that the band would gain the success and recognition they "fully deserv[e]".

[62] In the magazine Smash Hits, guest writer Morrissey penned a review of the follow-up single, "This World Over", that stated "XTC have stepped back from music industry machinations and are making better records.

"[63] Erica Wexler, then a reviewer for Musician magazine, suggested that "XTC is never short of ideas; their only real flaw is a propensity for crowding together too many.

"[64] In 1987, musician and writer Dave Bidini dubbed it perhaps "XTC's most humorless album - a sort of no-fun answer to the half-serious question asked on English Settlement.

He explained: "There is a lot of musical and verbal detail in the track, though much of it is buried and blurred, creating a flat, un-dynamic listening experience.

"[28] Reviewing The Big Express for AllMusic, Chris Woodstra said that XTC created "their most painstakingly detailed, multi-layered, sonically dynamic" work to that point, resulting in "a thoroughly consistent and enjoyable album beginning to end.

[66] In a 2016 interview, Skylarking producer Todd Rundgren said he also took issue with the lack of dynamics on Big Express, which he believed came from Partridge's tendency to fill arrangements with as many ideas as possible.

[74] XTC compilations that feature previously unreleased tracks related to the album include Drums and Wireless (versions of "Seagulls" and "Wish" recorded in 1984 for BBC Radio) and Coat of Many Cupboards (home demos of "All You Pretty Girls" and "Wake Up").

[75] Throughout the 2010s, much of the band's catalog was reissued, one album at a time, in the form of deluxe packages centred on new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson.

[77] In 2022, the multitrack tapes were located and the album was remixed by Wilson, including the first-ever Dolby Atmos mix of an XTC work.

All tracks are written by Andy Partridge, except where notedNote Credits adapted from the album's liner notes and an interview with "One Two Testing".