Calenture

[Stolen Property]

Calenture vs. TBS? Calenture every time. To me it feels like a more complete 'album' whereas TBS has some incredibly strong songs (Too Hot...,Falling Over You(mostly for the quote at the bottom, which still makes me melt even now), Goodbye Little Boy,Good Fortune Rose,New Year's Greetings,One Mechanic Town and Fairytale Love), but that still leaves six songs that feel more like filler.
It's funny though, the quality of songs that I perceive as 'filler'-lesser bands would kill for tracks like these.

[lonesomesquare]

I only found this forum a few weeks before heading off to Hasselt and I remember (through a haze of hoegaarden) saying to someone how much I loved it and was looking forward to hearing Kelly's Blues because it had been in my head all week.

Just for the alcoholic record, Annie: in Hasselt they weren't serving Hoegaarden at the bar, but Brugs Tarwebier (= the wheat-based white-beer from Bruges). Cheers anyway!

[Urpal]

Anything shipped from Bruges in that general direction is bound to be a quality product, lonesome Cheers!

[Cassiel]

As i've mentioned elsewhere, Calenture was my entry point to The Triffids; I was floored by it, and so has the sentimental value the others don't possess. BDS is the best Triffids album, I can see that, but Calenture will always be my favourite. I have no problems with the production values, in fact at the time I remember being knocked out by music with such an ambitious reach and sweep. Who else was doing that then? It contains three or four of my favourite ever songs and the best album closer of all time in my reckoning. The tunes are gorgeous, the music lush, his voice never sounded better, but it has that dark, dark heart. I'm fascinated by the prospect of the demos, how some of these songs sound shorn and stripped.
 
Annie, I've read and heard Kelly's Blues get's some stick, as a consequence of the whole production values debate: Martyn's 'rock god' bass is often brought up as a symbol of all that is wrong. But I love it, the hallucinatory, nightmarish nature of it. And what's wrong with a little bit of rock god bass? Could've been worse. Could've been slapped bass. 

[kuba]

I vote for BSD in this taking sides debate, although Calenture was my introduction to The Triffids and I still think it's very good for a start, because it's probably more accessible than Born Sandy Devotional, but still gives a good impression of what the Triffids were about. A lot has been said about the production of Calenture already and I share most of the views - Calenture is very 80s while BSD sounds more, hmmm, timeless and universal (apart from Wide Open Road maybe which I played to my friend and after half a minute he asked "when was it recorded? 1985, right?"). But it's definitely the songs and - what Urpal said - thematic integrity that makes me prefer BSD.

I generally enjoy the earlier sound of the Triffids more, I have to say I'm not a *huge* fan of The Black Swan - it's just a good record with a few great songs. On the other hand I have a soft spot for Treeless Plain and the Bad Timing EP, not as mature as later records, not perfectly produced, but the enthusiasm of a young band, the freshess of it is just amazing.

[Annie]

Just for the alcoholic record, Annie: in Hasselt they weren't serving Hoegaarden at the bar, but Brugs Tarwebier (= the wheat-based white-beer from Bruges). Cheers anyway!

Are you sure?

I was so certain - what else am I remembering wrong I wonder! 

[Urpal]

....Calenture is very 80s while BSD sounds more, hmmm, timeless and universal (apart from Wide Open Road maybe which I played to my friend and after half a minute he asked "when was it recorded? 1985, right?")

You're right about the version of Wide Open Road on BSD now sounding readily carbon dated to the Eighties. I think that's entirely on account of the swishy synth percussion sound that runs over the top of it - the shuh shuh-shuh shuh shuh shuh-shuh. The Peel Session version, which I think features natural percussion or a "harder" noise to make the same pulsing beat, now sounds fresher for this reason (I think I must go away and check my recollection is correct).

[Eke]

the version of Wide Open Road on BSD now sounding readily carbon dated to the Eighties.

That must be the "goth-psych" aspect of it that ties it there then

[Johan]

As i've mentioned elsewhere, Calenture was my entry point to The Triffids; I was floored by it, and so has the sentimental value the others don't possess. BDS is the best Triffids album, I can see that, but Calenture will always be my favourite. I have no problems with the production values, in fact at the time I remember being knocked out by music with such an ambitious reach and sweep. Who else was doing that then? It contains three or four of my favourite ever songs and the best album closer of all time in my reckoning. The tunes are gorgeous, the music lush, his voice never sounded better, but it has that dark, dark heart. I'm fascinated by the prospect of the demos, how some of these songs sound shorn and stripped.

It's Calenture for me, too, for much the same reasons.

[lonesomesquare]

On the Hasselt Hoegaarden being Brugs Tarwebier: Are you sure? I was so certain - what else am I remembering wrong I wonder!

I was asked not to go into details, Annie, but I can tell you the six of us really enjoyed it!

[Annie]

Good Lord!

 

[pherron]

I only found this forum a few weeks before heading off to Hasselt and I remember (through a haze of hoegaarden) saying to someone how much I loved it and was looking forward to hearing Kelly's Blues because it had been in my head all week.

Just for the alcoholic record, Annie: in Hasselt they weren't serving Hoegaarden at the bar, but Brugs Tarwebier (= the wheat-based white-beer from Bruges). Cheers anyway!

I'm not a leading expert on Belgian beer but I am almost certain that at the venue they were selling Hoegarden. I had some other white beers at other places, indeed one that you were drinking at the Century, Lonesome, but at the Belgie I would lay money that I was drinking Hoegarden. I remember the tap on the bar (before I got drunk!) and I remember talking about how I paid £4 for a pint in London once and it was only 1.50 Euros for a glass there, which worked out half the price.

And besides the beer argument, Calenture remains my favourite Triffids album, for what it's worth.

[Gerooki]

As i've mentioned elsewhere, Calenture was my entry point to The Triffids

Same for me, and therefore it is still my favourite Triffids album. It contains probably my favourite Triffids track (Trick of the Light) and as Cassiel says "the best album closer of all time in my reckoning".  In fact the first Triffids track I ever heard (knowingly) was TOTL. It was on GLR (a now defunct London radio station), and when I was listening to it, I thought that it was Lloyd Cole and his Commotions !!!!
Can't wait to hear the demo versions on the re-issue 

[Urpal]

....Calenture is very 80s while BSD sounds more, hmmm, timeless and universal (apart from Wide Open Road maybe which I played to my friend and after half a minute he asked "when was it recorded? 1985, right?")

You're right about the version of Wide Open Road on BSD now sounding readily carbon dated to the Eighties. I think that's entirely on account of the swishy synth percussion sound that runs over the top of it - the shuh shuh-shuh shuh shuh shuh-shuh. The Peel Session version, which I think features natural percussion or a "harder" noise to make the same pulsing beat, now sounds fresher for this reason (I think I must go away and check my recollection is correct).

In the words of Morrissey, having listened again to the two versions of Wide Open Road back to back, I was half right.

The thing is that the sound of the synth affected percussion on the album version might now sound of it's era, but it is nevertheless an essential ingredient as, unlike other uses of technology in the era, it serves an artistic purpose.

It forms a comforting "shh" gently hushing against the agony of the song and also creating a breezy sand dune effect which, if anything, heightens the melancholic impact and drama of the song.

[kuba]

Well said - and of course I didn't mean to undermine WOR's timelessness as a song, just wanted to point out that no other track on BSD sounds so 80s.