# The Big Heat (album)

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| The Village Voice | B |
The Big Heat is the debut solo album by American musician Stan Ridgway (former Wall of Voodoo vocalist), released in 1986 by I.R.S. Records. Named after the 1953 film noir of the same name, the original release consisted of nine songs, including the No. 4 UK hit "Camouflage". In 1986, the album reached No. 131 on the Billboard 200. The album was re-released in 1993 with six additional tracks and again re-released in 2007.

## Recording

Ridgway said of the album, "I wanted to bring a lot of influences to the surface. In Voodoo, we would take the influences and hide them. I wanted to move along and be able to do a jazz song. My heroes are people like Miles Davis who go through different musical stages and don't get stagnant."

## Reception

Spin said, "A man of few words, he makes every line count for something — either an image that evokes a scene or a line of dialogue that evokes a character. His decision to build and record in his own studio has paid off with a well-balanced sound that has lots of space for odd acoustic instruments to dart in and out of his synth-based arrangements."

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Stan Ridgway, except where otherwise indicated
* Before the album's release, the track "Pick It Up (And Put It in Your Pocket)" was used in a 1985 episode of Miami Vice.

## Accolades

| Year | Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank |
| 1986 | Best | France | "Albums of the Year" | 3 |
| 1986 | Q | United Kingdom | "Albums of the Year" | * |
| 1986 | Sounds | United Kingdom | "Albums of the Year" | * |
| 1990 | Mucchio Selvaggio | Italy | "The Best Albums of the 80s" | * |
| 1990 | Velvet | Italy | "The 100 Best Albums of the 80s" | * |
| 1991 | Rock & Folk | France | "The 250 Best Albums from 1966-1991" | 3 |
| 1999 | Panorama | Norway | "The 30 Best Albums of the Year 1970-98" | 19 |
| 2002 | Mucchio Selvaggio | Italy | "100 Best Albums by Decade" | 1-20 |
| "*" denotes an unordered list. ||||||

## Chart positions

| Chart (1986) | Peak position |
| Australia (Kent Music Report) | 61 |
| Germany (Media Control Charts) | 38 |
| Netherlands (MegaCharts) | 62 |
| Norway (VG-lista) | 11 |
| Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade) | 27 |
| US Top Pop Albums (Billboard) | 131 |
| Year | Title | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions | Peak Chart positions |
| Year | Title | AUS | AUT | BE | GER | IRE | NLD | SWI | UK | UK |
| 1985 | "The Big Heat" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 13 |
| 1985 | "Drive She Said" | 60 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1986 | "Camouflage" | 76 | 17 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 4 | — |
| 1986 | "The Big Heat (Remix)" | 91 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "—" denotes singles that were released but did not chart. |||||||||||

## Personnel

Adapted from The Big Heat liner notes.

## Release history

| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
| Spain | 1986 | Epic | CD, CS, LP | 40-2687 |
| United Kingdom | 1986 | I.R.S. | CD, LP | 1008 |
| United States | 1986 | I.R.S. | CD, LP | 5637 |
| United States | 1993 | I.R.S. | CD | X2 0777 7 13125 26 |
| United Kingdom | 2012 | Water | CD | Water252 |