Calenture by Triffids

Calenture, the Triffids' fourth album, came out on Island in November 1987, and its title sets the mood: a calenture is a fever that grips sailors on long, hot voyages. The Perth band, with McComb as singer and songwriter, filled it with songs about insanity, deception and never quite belonging anywhere.

It follows In the Pines, and the sound is big folk rock with an ocean's worth of space around it, all shimmering guitars, swelling arrangements and McComb's rich, doomed croon. "Bury Me Deep in Love" was the first single and remains one of their best-known songs, a soaring, heart-on-sleeve ballad; "Trick of the Light" and "Holy Water" followed in 1988, the latter cut with American producer Craig Leon. The Triffids always did better in the UK and Scandinavia than at home, and this record charted in Sweden and New Zealand as well as Australia. The Black Swan came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.