Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Favourite albums

Ben Rollins beeroll@mac.com
Tue, 26 Nov 2002 16:21:27 -0500


Hi everyone - interesting discussions on everyone's fave albums. I love ESM
and BSM as well, but I still can't get past the Head Injuries/Place without
a Postcard/10 to 1 trio. And I think it's the lyrics - the surrealism of
Naked Flame and Profiteers, the cynicism of Basement Flat and Lucky Country,
the sheer anger and sorrow of Read About It and Short Memory. I don't think
anyone has captured the endlessness of outback Australia better than the
line:

"Lucky country - there's a ribbon of road and a mile to spare."

And perhaps - this might be controversial - it's the fact that by and large
these earlier albums are less anthemic, less programmatic in their politics
that makes them more enduringly interesting to me.

To argue the other side, though, what was great at the Manly Leagues gig was
hearing various "layers" of the crowd get into various songs on the list -
the older crowd up the back getting into Outside World, everyone where I was
standing in the middle (late arrival thanks to my mother's birthday ;-) )
singing along to Beds are Burning, and someone right up the front requesting
Tone Poem - when you get a crowd that straddles generations of music like
that, you know you have a national (and global) treasure.

Cheers,

Ben Rollins
(First post)