With Born Sandy Devotional, the Triffids fully realized the potential shown on their earlier releases, Treeless Plain and Raining Pleasure. By 1985 the band was based in London, but despite the fact that this album was recorded 9,000 miles from home, its roots lie deep in the Triffids' native western Australia. While the spectacular cover photograph featuring the township of Mandurah provides a sense of place, David McComb's songwriting evokes his home environment all the more vividly. Indeed, this is the most accomplished work from McComb's tragically short career, encapsulating his talent for creating a lyrical and musical resonance between the stark, isolated geography of western Australia and universally recognizable, desolate interior landscapes. Born Sandy Devotional certainly is dark, its lyrics replete with death, psychological turmoil, and despair, but it's never maudlin or banal. McComb's commanding delivery combines with expansive, string-adorned arrangements to elevate many of these songs to the level of high emotional drama; haunting keyboards, vibes, and "Evil" Graham Lee's pedal steel add atmospheric detail. The elusive quality of McComb's writing makes his stories all the more compelling and memorable as he offers listeners fragmented, unresolved scenes instead of comfortable, complete narratives. Such elements coalesce sublimely on "Stolen Property" and "The Seabirds," songs of loss and suicide, respectively, but the anthemic "Wide Open Road" and the intense, claustrophobic "Lonely Stretch" are the standouts. Another tale of life gone wrong, "Tarrilup Bridge" sets organist Jill Birt's childlike vocals amid an eerie ambience of vibes and strings. Nevertheless, the album closes on a cautiously optimistic note with Birt's duet with McComb, "Tender Is the Night." Born Sandy Devotional was a landmark release for the Triffids. More than that, it stands as a testament to McComb's status as one of Australia's most gifted (and overlooked) rock songwriters. ~ Wilson Neate, All Music Guide
Born Sandy Devotional was an album by The Triffids, released in March 1986. The cover photo show the West Australian township of Mandurah in 1961. All the songs on the album were written by David McComb. The album was recorded at Mark Angelo Studios in London in August 1985 and mixed at Amazon Studios in Liverpool in September 1985.[1]
When we finished Born Sandy Devotional I knew it was the best thing we’d ever done, there was no question about it. The writing was much more autobiographical than anything I’d done before, I felt quite close to the subject matter. I found myself almost following the idea of fidelity as a complete all-consuming faith, to give you some sort of direction or something. And ‘Born Sandy Devotional’? It was the name of a song which didn’t make it onto the record which is about someone called Sandy… I like titles like those, they’re just a law unto themselves and they have a feeling unto themselves. Born Sandy Devotional is the culmination of our efforts trying to capture our more considered lyrical approach with a physical intensity… well not really, but that will have to do. David McComb - [2]
Born Sandy Devotional reached No. 37 on the Australian Album Charts[3] and No. 18 on the Swedish Album Charts in 1986[4].
On June 12, 2006 Domino Records released a re-mastered edition including 8 bonus tracks and the video for "Wide Open Road". The bonus tracks were selected by Graham Lee. The album was re-mastered from the original analogue recordings in Melbourne in February 2006. A limited edition also released by Domino Records containing a 40-page booklet with copies of the hand written lyrics for the ten songs, taken from David McComb's original notebooks (which differ slightly from the actual words sung) and notes and photographs about the making of the album.
The re-mastered edition of Born Sandy Devotional reaching No. 39 on the Belgium Album Charts in July 2006.[5]
On 11 August 2007 SBS in Australia aired a 1 hour documentary on the Triffids and Born Sandy Devotional as the 1980s representative of their Great Australian Albums series.
"The 107" - 3:28 : Recorded on an early four track cassette Portastudio in November 1984 and mixed at Greg Wadley's Spill Studios in January 2006. "The 107" and "When A aMan Turns Bad" run into each other on the original recording, probably accidentally, and have been deliberately left this way on the remastered edition.
"Whan a Man Turns Bad" - 4:35
"Of the Plaza" - 2:40 : Was originally recorded as a solo vocal version on a 1984 cassette labelled New Songs. According to the album liner notes it appeared once in an early list of possible songs for Born Sandy Devotional.
"White Shawl" - 1:08 : Was also found on the same cassette as the previous track.
"Convent Walls" - 4:04 : A song that appeared in early track lists for Born Sandy Devotional but was eventually relegated to B side status. Recorded in Albert Studios in Sydney, 1985 with Margaret Labi guesting on backing vocals.
"Time of Weakness" - 3:12 : This song, according to the album liner notes, was a part of Born Sandy Devotional until a very late stage, where it got bumped for the track, "Personal Things", as there was an issue with the running time or length of the LP. This version of the song was recorded live by Mitch Jones on November 23, 1985 at the Graphic Arts Club in Sydney and mixed by Rob Muir in Perth.
"Born Sandy Devotional" - 5:07 : This version has been reworked, as it only ever appeared as a truncated version on the album, In The Pines.
"Wish to See No More" - 1:59 : This is another song that was listed for inclusion on Born Sandy Devotional and also for In the Pines but was not included on either.
"Tender Is the Night (The Long Fidelity) Alt. vers." - 3:40 : Was recorded on the same cassette as the first two songs, "The 107" and "When a Man Turns Bad", with McComb and Birt singing this as a duet.
"All the other rock is howling around, picking the sand out of its eyes, and The Triffids, on this hurricane form, make it look like a swarmk of legless lizards. They've evidently taken their time, but unleash their true masterpiece when their nearest rivals clog their own arteries with pomp and frigid pretentiousness. Leaving a note on the fridge, The Triffids cap their climax with a lyrical wall and a mercurial lacing of melody. Tapping out their oaths in rich words and cured kisses of harmony, they stampede back with the best, most brilliantly brusque LP of the year so far. They make the human verb rain thunder and it's almost a miracle." Sounds - Jonh Wilde[7]
"After years of getting there, The Triffids have at last delivered what they've long promised: Born Sandy Devotional is a masterpiece.... Music, after all, expresses that which lies beyond words; and this is music of an order to be taken seriously... Born Sandy Devotional boldly reoccupies the territory rock has abandoned in its retreat into self obsession, and so throws down the challenge to the rest of the field. Have you the imagination to accept?" NME - Mat Snow
"At last somebody's released Born Sandy Devotional, which was finished nearly a year ago but has been bouncing around between dithering record companies ever since. God knows why because it's a classic, 10 songs of love and life in a hostile sub-tropical landscape. David McComb wrote the lot and it's a substantial achievement. His lyrics display real writer's insight, and mould imperceptibly to his unhurried melodies.... In The Seabirds, he explores a drowning love affair in a song so vivid it resembles a short story with pictures. I'll have worn my copy out soon. What more can I tell you?" Melody Maker - Adam Sweeting [2]
