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20,000 Watt RSL |
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20,000 Watt RSL
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20,000 Watt RSL |
Midnight Oil is a tough band to sum up in a few hundred words. What can be said about a band so public about it's politics? Singer Peter Garrett unsuccessfully ran for election in Australia on the Nuclear Disarmament ticket in 1984. Band members made no bones about their involvement at Temagami a few years ago. They have been involved with Greenpeace and other environmental organizations. And all along they've been able to make music that counts.
When you listen to a Midnight Oil album, you pay attention to what they're saying. Perhaps the thing that sets Midnight Oil apart is it sounds so different. Sure, they play rock 'n' roll with a bit of a pop and folk edge, but they do it unlike any other band I can think of. The closest comparison one could make is early U2 or Talking Heads. But unlike U2, it kept it's integrity throughout it's career. 20,000 Watt R.S.L compiles 16 of the bands biggest tracks and two new songs. The compilation is a fairly good representation of the band's career.
The 75 minutes of 20,000 require great attention. Midnight Oil is not the type of band that you can put on for background music. In the business for more than 20 years, the band has endured all fads and trudged on with its vision of music as more than a mere form of entertainment.
Such tracks as Blue Sky Mine, The Dead Heart, One Country and Back on the Borderline offer a lot more than good hooks and sing-a-long choruses. Theses songs open our eyes to issues of hypocrisy and corruption and never subordinate the listener as being a mere outsider looking in. The band offers a feeling of community and everyone must agree to compromise and get along. It's a bit of a utopian ideal, but Midnight Oil passes it off without seeming too naive.
The band's biography boldly claims this is not a greasiest hits collection. Midnight Oil, we are told, has never been concerned with hits, great or otherwise. Nonetheless, the band's biggest hits, Beds Are Burning, Truganini, The Forgotten Years and Dreamworld, are included. It doesn't matter what you call Midnight Oil, because it will always stand out from other bands.
Rating: 8:5 out of 10
Reviewer: Unknown