The first major release by a globally known band is finally out! Midnight Oil is back with their last tour and latest album, Resist; released online February 18, 2022. It is a monster of an album, and hopefully not their last. It is an anthem to resistance, that many of us have been waiting a long time to hear. It is so wonderful to hear new music from Midnight Oil again. The Oils have delivered!
Midnight Oil is made up of: Rob Hirst, on drums and vocals; Martin Rotsey, on guitar; Peter Garrett, on lead vocals; and Jim Moginie, on guitar, keyboards, and vocals.
Resist, opens with a song about global warming, “Rising Seas”. It is the album’s first single and music video. Rising seas, is something Midnight Oil has been warning everyone about for years. The beat is steady and the lyrics are up to the standards set back on my favorite album of theirs, Blue Sky Mining. Peter Garrett sings, “Every child, put down your toys. And come inside to sleep. We have to look you in the eye, and say, ‘We sold you cheap’, Let’s confess, we did not act with serious urgency. So, open up the floodgates to the rising seas”. The perfect single and one of the best songs on the album.
“The Barka-Darling River”, has my favorite verses from a song, so far this year, Garrett sings, “Who left the bag of idiots opened? Who drank the bottle of bad ideas? Who drew the last drop from the bottom? Good people are forgotten. Let’s shake some truth out of the jaw. Let’s kick the crooks out of the kitchen”, set to quiet piano notes. These lyrics come half-way through the song, which opens with a rockin’ swagger, full of guitar, bass and drums. Garrett almost sounds like Roger Waters, when he delivers, “There’s a famine of compassion”. Two solid tracks that are as good as anything they have made up until now. This band is back, for sure.
“Tarkine”, is another thoughtful song about how a wonderful gift of nature, the Tarkine tree, and its’ tall and imaginative flair is dying, thanks to global warning and over-tourism. The Tarkine Forest Reserve is a temperate rainforest with sand dunes and coastal heathland, on the island of Tasmania. It has long been associated with the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Garrett sings about his love for the place and its majesty and mystery.
“At the Time of Writing”, is another explosive rocking song about global warning. The lyrics are great again. Garrett sings, “There is nothing much hanging from the tree in the ‘Garden of Eden’. It takes a long, long time for the fruit to ripen on the vine. We better get together or we’ll end up on the roof with a shotgun. Because the chance, we’ve only got one!” “Now Old King Coal is dying. He was never gonna last a long run”. The writing is wonderful, and to the point. Perfect, so far.
“Nobody’s Child”, is one of the deepest, lyrically, songs I think the band has done since, maybe “Tone Poem”, “The World I See”, “One Country”, “Antarctica”, or “In the Valley”. Garrett sings, “Yeah, beauty, love, and compassion. Look around the world. ‘Cause nothing less will do. Still waters run so deep. Your kingdom wall falls so cheap. When I came into this world now. Someone had to love me. ‘Cause nothing less would do. And I saw, as I got older. Beauty, truth, and compassion.
Nothing less would do”. This song is set to a more rockin’ beat than the other stellar tracks I mentioned above, but let the beat go on.
“To the Ends of the Earth”, is full of more thoughtful lyrics delivered by Garrett. His voice sounds as good as it did when he was much younger, despite the stress and strain he has put it through, over the years. Imagine singing at top voice in outdoor concerts across the world. Garrett sings, “People of the world rise up! We have been unconscious for too long. Every creature drinks from the same cup. Makes you want to dance and praise with song. Joy is coming, so confess. You are filled with joy and thankfulness. We wake in a dream. Staring at screens. Choose apathy. Yeah to the ends of the earth. Find out what it is worth”. The music that surrounds his singing is layered and full of rhythm.
Grand acoustic guitar opens “Reef”, brightly, before the bass and drums thunder in. Then Garrett sings, “We’ve got the green light. We’re gonna dynamite. A world heritage site. Scientific recourse. Try to keep them so short. Hey, never read the details. We’re gonna make it pay. We’ll do it our way. So how about a railway?” Then another of Garrett’s wonderful observations, expressed lyrically, “The sky is a mirror. The sea and the breeze. The sky is a mirror. Of self-interest and greed”. A powerful statement of how we treat the Earth.
“We Resist”, is the anthem of the album, and our time. Garrett sings, “Only if
We resist. It’s a storm. Without end. Where’s the lighthouse? Where’s a friend.
Come to think. It can’t last. Only if. We resist”. Then, the crushing drums and the truthful piano. ‘Nuff said.
“Lost at Sea”, is another great Garrett showcase. He sings, inciteful lyrics, “In the age when the loudest voices win, words are now worth less than silence. In these days of so much suffering, it’s the punch you don’t see coming starts the violence.
We could hear the shoreline pounding in the distance, for a moment we were free.
Then the sons of white Australia came with guns, and pushed us back to sea.
We were lost at sea, wondering where the world could be. Well, the power of the sea can move your soul, eventually it takes control. We were in the ocean drifting, started listing, then the boat began to roll. And the coastline rose in front of us, each one of us was moved to pray or yell. Then the sons of white Australia came with guns, and took us to an island Hell”. Very powerful song filled with lyrics full of a cry for change.
On “Undercover”, Garrett sings, “Drive the Bowral road in autumn. The gibs on fire like a red plum. The burning colors beat the humdrum. As time goes by”. A song filled with a fun melody and great organ work all around. A song about enjoying New South Wales’s favorite place for fall colors.
“We are not Afraid”, is another of the best songs on the album. It opens with soft, but serious acoustic guitar. Like a great fireside song, Garrett sings, “There’s a dark cloud on the horizon. And it’s coming closer every day. No one, no one, understands why it’s happening. Oh, oh, oh-oh. We are not afraid”. Ominous sitting bass and deep strings help force a dark mood. Garrett sings, “Sometimes, huh, nightmares get inside our heads. Too much grasping madness reaching everywhere. Waking up a world of fear. Yet darkness lifts. The way ahead is clear”. A deep song of warning and a reminder that we should stand strong against fear.
“Last Frontier”, is the epic closer. It opens with sounds of people talking in multiple languages, along with sounds of thunder and maybe bombs going off. Then Garrett sings, “Barry said his last goodbye. To all the doomsday warriors. And set off for the bay. He could sniff the salt and scented sea. He kicked the backside of the teeve. The sky was in a darkening frame. He’s calling out now. Who pays off the debts we’re creating? Who fixes the messes that we keep making? Where is the soul, the substance and the whole? When you’re living on the last frontier every day?” All this set to slow plucked electric guitar.
What an incredible album of soulful love for the Earth, and the sounds of nature. You know Garett and the band, like us all, will miss it when it is gone. If only the majority of the world would listen, and more importantly…take action. Garrett sounds like an optimist. I think he sees a slow change coming. It is way to slow for them and me, but changes seem to be coming. As he said, coal is almost dead. There is more of a growing understanding, and unfortunately proof that the world is warming and changing for the worse. But I think the band holds out hope. It may be one of the reasons they decided to get back together, after so many years, and write a new album, and tour. I hope the tour reaches America, but the CD should be here soon. I will be playing this all spring and summer. Join me. It’s a great one!
Track List
- Rising Seas – 5:51Tere
- The Barka-Darling River – 6:49
- Tarkine – 4:20
- At the Time of Writing – 4:39
- Nobody’s Child – 4:28
- To the Ends of the Earth – 5:01
- Reef – 4:19
- We Resist – 5:18
- Lost at Sea – 4:45
- Undercover – 3:15
- We are Not Afraid – 4:29
- Last Frontier – 6:54
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