Johnquest- #14 - DIESEL AND DUST by MIDNIGHT OIL

DIESEL AND DUST | MIDNIGHT OIL

Anyone worth their salt likes midnight oil. Myself included, I like to think. I mean, and promise me you won't judge me for this, I've only really listened to “beds are burning” but I like that song enough for it to make the whole album beloved by proxy.

This is another one of those “Mr. Len Johnquest is really amped to listen to an album and as such the whole pre-overview commentary bit is just me going fucking nuts in anticipation” albums. I'm probably still going to get like this often. Come on guys, the year ends on a Game Theory album! Of course I'm insane. I like good music. And I firmly believe this album will be good. I can be simple like that sometimes.

OVERALL VERDICT:

I knew these guys were politically aware but I didn’t expect them to get so anticolonial with it. I am so fucking happy to hear this. Yes yes they’re all white but in the 80S??? Lord. Lord, lord lord. Well maybe Aussies are just better at Acknowledging The British’s Genocidal Habits or at least Were In The 80s’ but I’m overjoyed. Like hell fucking yeah. I had my suspicions at first given the fact they're all white dudes but it seems it was well researched. Double hell yeah.

This album is great in terms of sound, their vocalist has a voice like rough granite and it KICKS ASS. Not my favourite thus far in these terms but possibly my favourite when it comes to subject matter. Everyone make good socially conscious music forever, okay?

TRACK BY TRACK:

1. Beds Are Burning is the big hit that you've heard on the radios and w/e. It is a powerful, powerful, delightfully visceral song. It has all the best aspects of 80s music- anger, power, beautiful synths and guitar. Even horns! Everyone likes this one and that is because it is a very good song. Listen to that chorus and tell me you don't feel anything. You can't. It's great! It's impassioned. It's powerful- it really, really is!!! It is a strong opener and while it was probably earlier put out as a single it is still great on its own. It might be about something specific but I don't know what that would be. What I do know, however, is that I agree with it and it sounds really really fucking good. Like, Christ this song. Woof. What an opener.

2. Put Down That Weapon has more of those narsty locals. And it also feels very politically informed and CHRIST John Allison you should've given us a prescribed reading list! But it's another good song. Delightfully washed out 80s guitar has a place in my heart and this song also seems to have that. GOD I wish I knew what this was about. Other than cold war stresses and fears of mass destruction. But I think it's something else. And I agree that violence is Bad and probably also agree with whatever this is about. And that intense part a few minutes in? These guys know how to persuade people. The excellent mixing helps. But I think they're also just good at music. I… need to start reading these with genius open.

3. Dreamworld had an opening that made me go “WHOA” and a rest of the song that made me do the second thing another time. It’s a song about losing hope and escapism. And oh my god oh my god. The trilling… horns? Synth? I can’t even tell… it sounds incredible. This one has amazing vocal layering too. Maybe I’d let them knock over my dream world if they would sound that good singing it. But I’m not a capitalist industrial pollutor so they probably wouldn’t want to destroy it anyways. It makes me think environmental destruction. It seems to be a recurring theme. Maybe that’s just what the album is about.
Genius says I'm right, which could mean anything.

4. Arctic World gets contemplative with it. But it keeps that environmental consciousness. Yay! It is befitting. It fits the tone and subject matter of the album and that is something that I think a lot of bands who like to change it up in their albums need to keep in mind ahem hem. It comes in at a reasonable point. It still sounds like them! There’s a good range of instruments and the vocals feel the same. There’s some more classical hints in this one but it feels cohesive. Christ, these guys are so much better than WWW. I think about WWW and I get angry and I think about this song and I go “wow!”

5.Warakurna IS SO GOOD. Christ these guys make politics sound good. AND! AND! THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT COLONIALISM AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS! CAN WE HAVE THIS IN CANADIAN POP TOO PLEASE. And before you get at me, yes I know Odds and 54 40 and so many other bands are also very politically aware but afaik none of them have made songs specifically about THIS. Well crash the time machine touches on it and I was lucky enough to see Neil Osbourne dedicate one gun to the Free Palestine movement last summer but, like, come on. Even BTC only get vaguely decolonial! And obvy I haven’t heard every cancon album try as I might (if you know anything of this ilk send me an email!! A rec! lentwoens@gmail.com has it for you.). But never this obviously anticolonial. I would like to expound my newfound love of midnight oil from the skies .

6. The Dead Heart gets even more openly anticolonial. Holy hell these guys ROCK. AND they sound really good. I will talk about music again now. There’s a great rhythm and a very rallying feel here. The vocals are great. The layering again, good lord. Good lord. Gotta love hope, forever. Gotta love synthpop forever Holy hell. YES criticize those colonial projects. Criticize the views of lived-in land as terra nullis and free resources. This is so fucking important. Even though it’s white guys singing this. Maybe my perspective is skewed by non-aussieness but holy hell. From one horrendously colonized land to another: Hell fucking yes. If a bunch of white guys can make a political song that sounds this good and is so good the Metis national anthem can 110% be better, guys. Come on now..

7 . Whoah Is pensive again. Which is nice, mr. Vocals has a voice for it. This one is also very obviously political but I am once again not entirely sure. Yay criticism of the US military! Yay music that sounds great and dope ass vocal layering! YAY MUSIC! YAY THIS ALBUM! YAY THE MIDNIGHT OIL! I choose to interpret this as about the plight of industrial workers. But I am probably wrong! But OH it is so good. Listen to that shit. Agonizing!

8. Bullroarer Is, in my heart, a cowboy song. Or at least a rugged outdoorsy song. This band probably wouldn’t like it being called cowboyish. I fucked up real bad. Oh god oh god.
But CHRIST it sounds atmospheric. There’s the gnastiness again. Fucks hard as hell. It sounds like exactly what it describes. It’s so wonderfully distraught? I think? It’s atmospheric and it’s emotive and it’s REALLY REALLY GOOD OKAY? Okay. it kicks ass. And the washed out “shifting sands and broken plans” bit? I’m in love. So much love. This song could be in every movie. It’s reverent for the land’s past without being TOO noble savage-y. And I've learned about telegrams a bit more than I had before. And bullroarers! Literally everyone has them. Like every culture. Or a lot of them. I think probably most continents have someone who’s invented a bullroarer or something like them. They’re SO COOL.

9. Sell My Soul talks about MAGA. Reagan’s MAGA but still OUGH. The USA has always had shit governance, let’s not forget that. I also really appreciate the fact they’re concerned about rural folk (well, presumably. Farmers.). As a guy who’s currently staying somewhere where his window just straight up faces a grain field, YES PLEASE! This is another wonderfully powerful song. And that… I want to say steelstring? Whatever twangy motherfucker is getting played. It’s wonderful. Oh these vocals. Jesus christ I am talking so much this review. Welp. They can’t all be short and snappy.

10. Sometimes is another powerful one. It’s almost like this whole album is powerful. Wow! What a shocker. This one sounds so good. So, so, so good. Like holy hell what a good song. I honestly find it at LEAST on par with Beds Are Burning. But it’s less of an opener and more of a “We’ve got it started- let’s keep going!” one. And it sounds good. IT SOUNDS SO GOOD. KICKASSSSS.

11. Gunbarrel Highway has two traits that most songs on this album do: it SOUNDS GREAT and it SAYS GREAT THINGS. This one is good. I maybe would’ve put it before Sometimes on the album? But it works well as a closer too. It exemplifies the aussieness and it sounds good and it IS good! Music is good.

If you like this Album, you might also like: YOUR LOCAL RETRO RADIO STATION. Or The Icicle Works? Just in general Or LIZT by BARAFLOKKURINN (thanks, Moreaux, for the rec way back when!)(yes there’s a song called Mr. Penis. And a little racism. It sounds really really good okay)

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