[Goddard, Darren]

By Jeff Apter
****
Midnight Oil
Capricornia
Columbia
 
THE SIGNS HAVEN'T BEEN GOOD for Aussie stalwarts, Midnight Oil.  After 25
years of faithful rock & roll service, they'd seemingly lost their way.
First came a greatest hits package (1997's 20,000 Watts RSL), then an
uninspired live disc (2000's The Real Thing), followed by last year's
tribute album, The Power and the Passion.  Now the latter mightn't have been
of the band's making, but it's still very much the type of album that
emerges when a band has superannuation and a quiet retirement in mind.  Yet
somehow things have changed.  First step was some wildly received American
shows, where the quintet played with a born-again vigour and spirit.
"Garrett is a sight everyone should encounter at least once," yelled one
reviewer.  "You would have thougt this was 1983" screamed another.  The next
step in their resurrection is this compassionate, deeply felt, unashamededly
retro-sounding 11th studio album, due in March.  So the jig is up - the
releases between Redneck Wonderland and Capricornia were merley stones in
the road, water-treading exercises designed to keep diehards keen while the
band got busy in the studio.
 
If there's one key issue - and hey, Midnight Oil have alwas been obssessed
with issues - that emerges from Capricornia, it's the band's tough love for
this sunburnt country.  Like all true believers, they see its blemishes
("Beds are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine" were hardly love letters), but
beneath that discontent lurks a proud, if worried, bunch of Australian
blokes.  These strong feelings surface time and time again on this
surprisingly restrained, richly melodic album.  Garrett sings the line "in a
country we call home" with so much heart during "The World That I See" that
it's plain wrong to consider these the words of some pissed-off agitator.
instead, they're the feelings of a giant of a man who knows we live in a
country full of possibilities.  The band's compassionate spirit shines on
during "Luritja Way" - with an acoustic-powered melody not too far removed
from "The Dead Heart" - even if they twist the knife during "Too Much
Sunshine", another dig at complacency along the lines of Redneck's
"Comfortable Place on the Couch".  ("Nothing changes/but the channel changes
you" Garrett barks.)  As always, Midnight Oil aren't reluctant to pick at
the flaws in our mindest and in the corridors of power, but somewhere deep
in their soul they love this place.
 
Capricornia is a very different record to the contemporary-sounding Redneck
Wonderland.  For starters the duelling guitars of Martin Rotsey and Jim
Moginie only occasionally get the chance to cut loose.  They do blaze
brightly during "Too Much Sunshine", a raw-knuckled rocker from the "Section
5 (Bus to Bondi)" school; "Mosquito March", which is the album's most
punch-drunk rocker; and "Golden Age" which is three-and-a-bit minutes of
crisp jangling.  More often, though, this is an album dominated by
thoughtful. measured strums, with little of the studio smarts that gave
Redneck such a modern edge.  Melody is the key here.  The title track wields
a stately grace; "Under the Overpass" features a chorus of hallelujahs that
builds to one very natural high, while "Been Away Too Long" is the album's
anthem-in-waiting, with a towering vocal melody not a world away from the
Oil's standards "Dream World".
 
Twenty-five years is more that a lifetime for most rock & roll bands.  Yet
somewhere along the line Midnight Oil have got ther mojo working yet again.
While unlikely to bring any new converts on board, Capricornia is the work
of a band looking forward with a gaurded optimism, rather than looking back
in anger.
 
Rolling Stone Issue 597 February 2002

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Cheers

Dazza