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Breathe |
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Breathe
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Breathe |
What do you get when you take a band from Australia who was used to playing beach bars in their early years, a band known for their pounding, rhythmic bass lines as well as political messages in their lyrics, and then add a little country feel? You get a CD called "Breathe" and it's from the band Midnight Oil.
I guess what I liked most about "Breathe" as I listened to it was it was different. My first couple of listens were mostly background music while I was working, and I didn't pay attention to the lyrics too much. What I heard at this point in time was a sound that really didn't relay to most anything I've heard on the radio lately. There was a good beat and some catchy lines that I picked up on. It didn't fit the mold of one-hit-wonder bands getting a lot of the radio-play, it wasn't a "metal" feeling band, and as much as there was a country feel on some of the songs, I highly doubt I'd be hearing those songs on my local country station playing those country hits being plowed through as much as the one-hit-wonder alternative songs. This was different, this was kinda cool. And then I started reading the lyrics.
I'll be honest, I really don't know how the music part of this CD fits in with the older Midnight Oil material. I've read it's similar, but from seeing their live show, this CD doesn't have as much of that "punk" feel that some of their other songs seem to have - I guess that's caused mostly by some of the slower songs, "One Too Many Times" and "Home," but where I could see the younger generation in a mosh pit during some of their older songs, I don't see them out of control listening to "Breathe." It might turn off a fan or two, but it might pick up three or four more in their place. But, music aside, what I did find is that the lyrics have much of that same political/fight the power/there's hope if we make it messages they've been known for in the past. With lines like "If we surrender ourselves to industrial rules, we'll wake up in the wreckage of tomorrow" from "Common Ground," "Where is the town that we lived in brother, where are the sounds of the church bell sister, now is the time to heal" from "Time to Heal," and "Here comes the angel of death, you may not remember her yet, concrete all over her face, she's the child of the human race" from "Bring on the Change." Put it this way, if they aren't writing songs with some kind of meaning it's really odd that their songs end up that way.
I guess I like "Breathe" because it is different. I sort of mixes many of my musical tastes all into one CD - there's a little industrial edge, there's a little rock, there's a little country. I'm not sure how they pulled it off, but somehow, Midnight Oil did.
Thirteen tracks of which I like ten of them ain't too bad. With that, I give Midnight Oil's "Breathe" 10 out of 13.
Reviewer: The Dude on the Right