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Re: midnight oil
>From: haley kate <bravesaintkate at juno_com>
>
>i know several people on the list like midnight oil so.. is this cd worth
>it? or would i be better off spending more $$ on a new, different one?
Well, the only listees I know of that like the Oils are Fred, Kevin and I.
Their sound is a bit more strident than OtR, after all.
That said, "Blue Sky Mining" was my first Oils CD. I got it after seeing
the clip for "Forgotten Years" on my local Christian station. It was very
powerful. (Oils are a mainstream band, btw, with oblique and subtle
Christian overtones, like U2.) Anyway, BSM may well have been my last Oils
CD, but I'm weird- the keyboards that pop up all over most of the rest of
the CD were off-putting to me, the quintessential guitar nut. (Small wonder
I love OtR so much.) However, the live album came out a few weeks after I
got BSM, and something about the music made me take a chance on it. What a
revealation- guitar nirvanna!
I have come to love BSM. It went Gold here. It features the band looking
out at the world, and their place in it, and writing some very poetic
musings about it all, after their first world tour. The sound is a shift
from the power-pop with art rock overtones of "Diesel and Dust" to art rock
with power-pop overtones, so it is a more subtle, less in-your-face type of
recording. It was a huge success, critically revered, and still contains
several Oils standards. Not my favorite, but perhaps for a mellow OtR fan,
it would be a good first listen. (?) However, you should know that several
of the best tracks appear on "20,000 Watt RSL", though not all. There
really isn't a bad tune on BSM.
The current CD, "Capricornia", rocks harder, but is regarded by many fans
and music critics as the bands best work since BSM. It should be noted to
those who are not found of political rock that the Oils have moved away from
that a bit, NOT as far as U2, but somewhat. This shift really kicked in
during 1993s "Earth Sun Moon". Now, the songs are more personal and
emotional, like those of the great protest writing folk singers of
yesteryear, only LOUDER.
I could go on and on about the Oils, so e-mail me off-list with any
questions. Heck, I'll even offer to buy BSM off you if you don't like it,
I'm that eager to spread the Oily goodness!
Oils rock,
Matt
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