Calenture is the fourth studio album by Australian rock group The Triffids, it was released in November 1987 and saw them explore themes of insanity, deception and rootlessness—the title refers to a fever suffered by sailors during long hot voyages.

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.

The term calenture is described in the sleeve notes as: "Tropical fever or delirium suffered by sailors after long periods away from land, who imagine the seas to be green fields and desire to leap into them".

[2][5] In February 1988 David McComb, in an interview with Paul Mathur and Stephen Phillips for Rock Australia Magazine (RAM), described Calenture as an "over-the-top record" and even called it the Triffids' Heaven's Gate.

[10] Wilson Neate of Perfect Sound Forever found that a "sense of alienation, betrayal, insanity and solitude still permeates his writing, although Calenture seems less explicitly imbued with Western Australian imagery than the previous records".

[3] Mathur and Phillips describe the album as "far and away the most 'produced' record The Triffids have ever done... packed full of little electronic surprises: drum computers, synthesisers, samplers, even a gadget that goes 'woop'".

[3][7][9] AllMusic's Michael Sutton found "there's an undeniably spiritual feel to several of the songs" where "David McComb spews his words with the fiery passion of a backwoods preacher".

[11] Sutton advises "Fans of Nick Cave will immediately be seduced by McComb's bluesy croon; deep and brimming with palpable sorrow, [his] voice never dwindles in intensity".

[11] David Fricke writing for Rolling Stone observed that the album "is about the chills and delusions suffered by lovers separated too long from each other and from reality".