It's New to Me: Born Sandy Devotional by the Triffids (1986)

Illustration from The Latch Key of my Bookhouse, edited by Olive Miller, 1921

The Triffids have a "hits" collection called Australian Melodrama, and I have a hard time thinking of a better term to sum up the sound of this band during their '80-'89 lifespan. I have listened to a lot of Triffids stuff casually over the years, but I recently acquired their second album, 1985's Born Sandy Devotional, to get to know the band better. When you hear the phrase "Australian Melodrama", you may think of the lofty romanticisms of the Go-Betweens or the sinister post-punk of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. And you wouldn't be too far off, as the Triffids sound like an even split between the styles of these two seminal Aussie rock bands.

The band's leader, David McComb, had worked out this sound over the course of the band's early recordings, but he had something specific in mind with Born Sandy Devotional. It's an intensely personal set of songs, and the notes that come with the deluxe re-release of the album show just how much work he put into getting it right. Excerpts from his notebooks show a variety of alternate track-listings, as well as notes on why the title should be composed of three unrelated words. He wrote that the album should be a set of unified songs, and his notes muse on the use of field recordings and sound effects to bring the album together.

McComb's focus on getting Born Sandy Devotional just right really shows - I think that it's why the album is considered by many to be the band's masterpiece. Gil Norton's production is immaculate and timeless, and the songs flow together seamlessly, even though McComb is obviously drawing from some very different sources of inspiration. The album starts with two perfect Go-Betweens-ish pop songs, "The Seabirds" and "Estuary Bed", and then it slowly descends into a more sinister Nick-Cave-inspired place with the murder-balladry of "Tarrilup Bridge" and the downright creepy "Lonely Stretch". The album's second side has several epics that evoke the wide expanses of Western Australia - "Wide Open Road" invents the feel of The Joshua Tree two years early, and "Stolen Property" might be the ultimate moment of Australian melodrama on the album.

On my first few listens, I admit that I wished Born Sandy Devotional would decide whether it wanted to be the Go-Betweens or Nick Cave. But I now see that the Triffids were doing there own thing that could incorporate both those sounds - I hardly hear the influences when I listen to the album now. This is especially true of the album's best songs, like "The Seabirds", which opens the album. The song's very personal narrative is thrown against a huge string-laden backdrop with some cool country touches from Graham Lee's pedal steel guitar. The song doesn't really have a chorus, except for the final repeated, "Where were you?" If you're a fan of Echo & the Bunnymen or the Go-Betweens, then this song will probably sound pretty good to you and the Triffids might be worth checking out.

"The Seabirds" by the Triffids