tdh Opinions Reviews Redneck Wonderland

Redneck Wonderland

Reviewed by Lovegrove's Ear on London

With a powerful, emotionally fuelled right hook to the jaw of Pauline Hansen and her One Nation political party, Midnight Oil's robust, raw new album, Redneck Wonderland has put to rest any misconceptions that the legendary band had lost the power and the passion.

Garrett, Hirst, Moginie, Hillman and Rotsey, Australia's veteran rockers collectively known as Midnight Oil, have once again encapsulated the political and social unrest currently running rampant across the length and breadth of the lucky country.

The cover of Redneck Wonderland says it all: a giant, red kangaroo, a double barrelled shotgun slung dangerously over it's right shoulder, left paw hanging limp.

In typical hey-day Oils fashion, the band has lyrically kicked hard at the increasing environmental apathy, and the sprawling suburban alienation mentality currently sweeping Australia, typified by the beliefs of Hanson and her rolling redneck revue.

The band has captured the dilemma of a new, fragmented teen generation which is being offered no focus for its angst. No prisoners are taken in the stalwart Oil's rage against the new Aussie mall mentality, the closing down of old Australian rural towns, and the apparent increase of prejudice, violence and discrimination now spreading like a disease across Australia.

Garrett's roaring vocals are something else again on the brilliant, loping contemporary album. Redneck fuses the band's thundering, sometimes irritating twist on rock, together with layer's of electronics, technology experimentation, explosive drum and bass, and finally pulverised by guitars, riffs and distortion. It's a heady mix, the band continuing to evolve rather than cease.

Garrett snarls as he hits hard at the self pity and selfish core of One Nation; "it's vision free, it's poor bugger me".

The Oils have jumped into the new Australia debate, and why not, they've been the contemporary conscience of Australia for two decades now, speaking their mind, as they musically evolve.

Their previous album, the brilliant but underrated Breathe showed a band crossing a bridge, breathing as it were, absorbing the emotional changes they felt as they saw their country teeter.

Affected by the radical changes happening around them, within their beloved country, Midnight Oil have recoiled, rekindled the rage, delivered what will become a benchmark snapshot of our time.

As the band's drummer, Rob Hirst recently said: ""Midnight Oil is at it's most convincing when it's pissed off".

Redneck Wonderland is totally convincing, and more power to Midnight Oil. They've managed to capture in one swift blow what all the so called radical new bands in Australia haven't even touched upon.

Reviewer: Vincent Lovegrove