tdh Opinions Reviews Breathe

Breathe

There are some real surprises on the new album from the Oils, not least is the fact that Peter Garrett seems to be finding his falsetto and it's proving a very emotive weapon in the arsenal of passionate commitment this band has always brought to its work. Sometimes that falsetto howls out, as it does on "Bring On The change", with its unrestrained demand as the song climaxes, and sometimes that falsetto crumbles and you can feel that quiet desperation in the voice that once made the last note of Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" such a moving experience.

Then you have musical elements you'd never have expected from the Oils. For all their passionate commitment to the bush and the desert places, who'd have expected a country song from them? Of course, the Oils could never play a straight country song, but "Home" is country nonetheless, with a harmonica solo even, Garrett's voice coming across with a touch of Lennon's slightly nasal tonality. Then there's a duet! While Emmylou Harris was touring earlier this year, it seems the producer of her last album, Malcolm burn, who produced Breathe, managed to get her along to one of the sessions and the result is the bittersweet "Home". And just for good measure the album finishes with an instrumental - "Gravelrash".

Along the way you get the full spectrum of classic Oils power and passion, from the great clanging bucket snare that drives the first single, "Underwater", through the swirling intensity of tracks like "Sins Of Omission" and the ebullient "E-Beat", to the surprisingly sombre "Surf's Up Tonight", more nostalgic than celebratory in mood. And there's a lot of moodiness and even pessimism on Breathe, rather than the band's more usual call to action, and the politics are almost completely subsumed in favour of broader visions of a future seen darkly through a mirror, rather than the usual strident confidence.

In the end, this all makes Breathe a more personal album than anything the Oils have done before, a more musical album because the point seems to be the sheer joy of being in a room together again and sweating it out, like the old days, before the hits and the notoriety and the tours. Breathe is one of those albums that quietly gets beneath your skin. I think it'll age pretty gracefully.

Reviewer: Michael Smith