(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Midnight Oil deserve great credit for revitalizing the protest song.
The albums Midnight Oil (Powderworks, 1978) and the subsequent Head Injuries (Powderworks, 1979) and Place Without A Postcard (Columbia, 1981) gave no indication of anything particularly significant for Midnight Oil, led by the bald and towering Peter Garrett. In reality, Powderworks (from the first album), Stand In Line (from the second), and Someone Else To Blame (from the third) already showcased a band seriously engaging with rock tradition and the issues of their time.
The album 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (Columbia, 1983), however, displays arrangements (electronic) and lyrics (political) that place them a cut above the average synth-pop, tinged with a romantic/decadent hue in the style of Bowie and Gabriel. Power And The Passion, where a funky dance groove serves as the vehicle for an anti-bourgeois tirade, is the manifesto of this unique agit-prop art, which combines spectacle with pedagogy. The model for Outside World is a harmonically complex song, full of pathos yet catchy. The album teems with sonic punch like Read About It and anti-imperialist anthems like Short Memory, whose messages are underscored by sudden bursts of guitar or electronics.
The method is taken to the extreme in Tin Legs And Tin Mines, which borrows its cadence from Bowies most vicious cabaret to ascend into heroic symphonic territory. At the core of their sonic tricks is always a sincere political commitment. Their politics, however, never transcend personal drama, as in the heartfelt confession of Only The Strong, masterfully rendered through rock and roll that is first syncopated, then tribal, then simply unleashed.
The band presented a harder rock format on the following Red Sails In The Sunset (Columbia, 1985), adopting funky syncopation for When The Generals Talk and letting loose into rock and roll on Best Of Both Worlds. Sharpening their aim, Diesel And Dust (Columbia, 1987) became their worldwide breakthrough, thanks to catchy and politically engaged songs like Beds Are Burning, where Byrds- and Beatles-style vocal harmonies intertwined with social themes. Dead Heart, Sell My Soul, Dream World, and all the others form a poignant humanitarian appeal.
In the 1990s, the band limped along, no longer capturing the vigor of their prime, indulging in the polished pop of Forgotten Years and refining the contemplative music of Stars Of Warburton on Blue Sky Mining (Columbia, 1990), or speculating on modern anxieties with a preacher-like tone on Feeding Frenzy and My Country from Earth And Sun And Moon (Columbia, 1993), even approaching a more apocalyptic U2-like style (Truganini, Outbreak Of Love).
Abandoning synthesizers and picking up the guitar again, Breathe (Work/Sony, 1996) is an awkward attempt to adapt to the Nirvana era (In The Rain, Star Of Hope), undermined by a couple of country ballads.
The anthology 20000 Watt R.S.L. (Columbia, 1997) collects their biggest hits and most famous political songs.
Another political album, Redneck Wonderland (Columbia, 1998),
took issue with just about everything but delivered very little that had
not been heard before (perhaps the spoken-word Blot).
Capricornia (2002) overflows with filler, but the one intriguing
number, the eight-minute fantasia Poets & Slaves, would have been
a standout even on their best albums.
