Treeless Plain

David McComb later said, "I don't think it's a great record, but at least we tried to do a few things that pub bands wouldn't normally do. For a lot of the underground scene all across Australia, we just weren't hard rock enough. We used to have a thing against pedals."[5] Elsewhere, he said, "I wouldn't have wanted it rawer, and I wouldn't have wanted it any slicker. It doesn't sound like it was rushed at all. We just wanted a crispness and brightness, and a sort of relaxed feeling. The usual criticism is that there's too much variety, to which we always point to the rest of the music industry and say there's not enough."[6]

"Evil" Graham Lee (not a member of the band until later) said, "The band recorded Treeless Plain in a dozen midnight-to-dawn sessions with a young, green recording engineer called Nick Mainsbridge. Dave had put a lot of thought into how the songs would be recorded and mixed and, fortunately, his production notes still exist, because they came in very handy when Nick got the chance to remix the album in 2007."[7]

The album was named after the Nullarbor Plain, which Robert McComb estimated they crossed eleven times travelling from Perth to the east coast of Australia. He said, "It took five days in my Combivan, and then three days once we got a van that could do better than 80 km (50 mi) an hour. We hit a couple of roos in that one. One of them almost totalled the car. At one point, Dave wanted to call the album $2,000 Kangaroo."[8]

An AllMusic review claimed, "Treeless Plain underscores The Triffids' knack for blending folk and country with indie rock in a way that anticipated the rise of alt-country in the '90s." David McComb's "commanding and resonant" vocals were particularly praised, and the songs, "offered incontrovertible evidence of McComb's skill as a songwriter with a unique lyrical and musical vision."[9]

Clinton Walker described the album as, "a remarkably mature, muscular yet sensitive statement, and it was probably as broadly successful as any Australian indy has ever been. But that still didn't mean big figures."[5] Elsewhere, it was said that the album would endear itself to listeners, "assuming, of course, that you can envisage a band that links folksy sounds, replete with fiddles, with those you might expect of some early Velvet Underground."[10]

All songs written by David McComb[11] unless otherwise noted.

1. "Red Pony" - 4:11
2. "Branded" - 2:44
3. "My Baby Thinks She's a Train" - 3:36
4. "Rosevel" - 2:59
5. "I Am a Lonesome Hobo" (Bob Dylan[11]) - 2:14
6. "Place in the Sun" - 2:22
7. "Plaything" - 3:10
8. "Old Ghostrider" - 3:09
9. "Hanging Shed" - 4:02
10. "Hell of a Summer" - 4:30
11. "Madeline" - 2:35
12. "Nothing Can Take Your Place" - 2:49

1. "Red Pony"
2. "Branded"
3. "My Baby Thinks She's a Train"
4. "Rosevel"
5. "I Am a Lonesome Hobo"
6. "Place in the Sun"
7. "Plaything"
8. "Old Ghostrider"
9. "Hanging Shed"
10. "Hell of a Summer"
11. "Madeline"
12. "Nothing Can Take Your Place
13. "Interview" (Live at the Wireless)
14. "Old Ghostrider" (Live at the Wireless)
15. "Plaything" (Live at the Wireless)
16. "My Baby Thinks She's a Train" (Live at the Wireless)
17. "Rosevel" (Live at the Wireless)
18. "Hell of a Summer" (Live at the Wireless)
19. "On the Street Where You Live" (Live at the Wireless)