606. The Triffids - Calenture (1987)
















Track Listing

1. Bury Me Deep In Love
2. Kelly's Blues
3. A Trick Of The Light
4. Hometown Farewell Kiss
5. Unmade Love
6. Open For You
7. Holy Water
8. Blinder By The Hour
9. Vagabond Holes
10. Jerdacuttup Man
11. Calenture
12. Save What You Can

Review

This is an album which has been growing on me the more I listen to it, and I imagine that with a few more days of listening to it I might have come to a different conclusion about it. There are some songs here which I truly love and then others which leave me kind of cold.

The idea of having a kind of alternative band with kind of a strong Gospel flavour is an interesting one, but I am not sure if this is done to the best effect here. There is too much of the music which is of its time, and for 1987 that is not a particularly wonderful thing.

Still, as a band from Australia you can see some influences here that go from INXS to Nick Cave, and the influence is mutual really. The Triffids clearly influence the more grandiose of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, only it's cheerier. The lyrics are good, at times great. So a good album.

Track Highlights

1. Blinder By The Hour
2. Kelly's Blues
3. Save What You Can
4. Bury Me Deep In Love

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The recording sessions for Calenture began with American producer Craig Leon (appointed by Island Records) however it bcame clear, at least to the band that Leon (and Island Records) were primarily interested in David McComb and not the rest of the band members.

'In the tried and true way of all major labels at the time, they really wanted to sign Dave but got a troublesome band instead. It was probably Island's insistence that Alsy and Marty weren't up to it that caused the Craig Leon sessions to be the unmitigated disaster that they were. Now I could be wrong here, maybe Craig wanted them out, maybe both. We were pretty much forced to let a couple of session guys stand in -- no names because it wasn't their fault -- and we could tell straight away that this was applying a straightener to the normally unruly quiff that was the band. It was also sucking the essence of the band out. Anyway, it's a sorry little interlude that I should draw the curtain on. The sessions were scrapped and we were allowed to be the Triffids again.'

Island Records then brought in Lenny Kaye however Kaye felt that the Triffids and their material were impressive enough and that they didn't need his help. Eventually Gil Norton (who worked on Born Sandy Devotional was brought back to re-record the album.

Kelly's Blues: