Midnight Oil

SV: [Powderworks] Capricornia

Bjorn Blomquist bjorn.blomquist@mbox301.swipnet.se
Tue, 19 Mar 2002 13:11:25 +0100


> What's this I keep hearing about the second half of Capricornia being a 'let 
> down' or 'too nice' or 'not up to scratch' or 'unimaginative'???? 

It's funny that most people seem to prefer "side one",  the songs before and maybe including the interlude "A crocodile cries". (BTW, do you think that track 6 should belong to side one or side two?) Maybe it's because of this interlude we feel like the album consists of two separate "parts"?

In fact, when I tried to rank the songs of 'Capricornia' in order of my fondness of them, the only song from the second half of the album that entered the top half of my list was "Poets & Slaves".

1. Tone poem
2. Luritja Way
3. Poets & Slaves
4. Golden Age
5. Too much sunshine
6. Capricornia
7. A crocodile cries
8. World that I see
9. Under the overpass
10. Mosquito march
11. Been away too long

I'm not sure about the order of spots 3 to 5, and I don't know where to put in "A crocodile cries" as it feels more like an interlude than a song because of its short length.
How would you rank the songs?

By the way, don't you think that Garrett's voice has lost some of its... spark? In "Poets and slaves" in particular I think his voice sounds, what can I say, dry and "old"... Something's missing there.
Ironically, his vocals sound great in "Too much sunshine", thanks to the sound effects I'm afraid...
Please don't take this a "Garrett bashing". I just write down my thoughts of what *I* hear. We love him anyway, don't we? 

My favourite lines of 'Capricornia':

"I don't wanna go home
Gasoline junkies dance stoned
It's better than drinking alone"

> I love Capricornia, from song 1 to 11, all 47ish minutes of it.

What "extended" version do you have? Mine is only 41:24...

/Bjorn