It’s a long way from Midnight Oil’s self-titled debut album to 2022’s Resist, the release accompanying the band’s self-imposed retirement from touring the same year (and purportedly not the last of its kind under the name taken from Jimi Hendrix’ “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”). Along the way, the Australian band has changed personnel, suffered the passing of band members, gone on hiatus, and then embarked on a farewell tour that was a culmination of over forty years of commitment arguably no greater to its own unity than social causes.
At the heart of all Oils’ activities, of course, are the studio recordings and live shows, recordings of which pepper a discography that saw an expansive but belated American release subsequent to the group’s international breakthrough in the Eighties via Blue Sky Mining. To the great credit of the quintet, it has rarely diverged from the pure rock and roll sound of this first effort (apart from their fourth, 1982’s 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1).
Listening to the debut album (released 11/1/78), it’s remarkable to hear how the band progressed and judiciously experimented over the course of time. But that evolution is even more impressive given that its music became increasingly driven in the process. “Powderworks” and “Head Over Heels’ find the ensemble moving in leaps and bounds, hard-hitting collective motion they would sustain for the duration of the regrettably short (34-minute) record.
As fast as the Ramones and more intelligent than the Clash, Midnight Oil might well have benefitted from the nascent punk movement occurring at the time of its release. But no doubt the dynamism of the arrangements would confuse narrow-minded listeners: like “Run By Night,” these tracks are as often as not structured to allow with prominent keyboards from Jim Moginie (also a guitarist) and extended solos from his fretboard partner Martin Rotsey.
And that’s not to mention the performances themselves, hallmarks of which are Rob Hirst’s piston-like drumming as much as Peter Garrett’s voice. The changes in the latter’s vocal delivery on “Dust,” for instance, mirror the shifts in the otherwise unadorned instrumental accompaniment. Add in the shared credits for songwriting among all the band members (oddly except original bassist Andrew James) and the Oils project a unified front right in line with the staunch stances they adopt in their topical commentary.
Already articulate and on the way to eloquence, the printed lyrics of Midnight Oil contain less overtly relevant political themes than the later material. Still, the positivism that permeates “Nothing Lost-Nothing Gained” is exactly what distinguished them as genuine social justice warriors, devoting themselves to aboriginal rights in their native land as well as environmental issues worldwide: their initial hiatus allowed Garrett to run for and be elected to his country’s House of Representatives, while the group’s tour of remote indigenous communities in 1986 provided the source material for the next year’s Diesel and Dust LP).
Suffice it to say hearing this album at the time of its original release would foster following the group’s subsequent discography. Likewise, listening to it four and a half decades later might well prompt a truly curious music lover to gather up all the titles subsequent to it as well. While this initial record might only hint at what a musical and cultural juggernaut Midnight Oil eventually proved itself to be, history will show how important a step was this truncated long-player in establishing a foundation for a group that moved from playing surfer bars to protesting Exxon’s business practices by playing a set on a flat-bed truck outside the company’s corporate offices in May of 1990.
