Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining

Wonderful Piece Of Righteous Rock & Roll

BLUE SKY MINING is a wonderful piece of righteous rock & roll from Midnight Oil, Australia's most uniquely Australian band. Their musical attack links new wave with classic rock, and the lyrics are full of references to situations concerning Australia's treatment of workers and Aborigines, almost to the point where it may be hard for American ears to understand on first listen. Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll find parallels with America's treatment of its disenfranchised. The bandmembers' opposition to Indonesia's trumped-up 2005 drug-smuggling conviction of a young Australian tourist, shared with all American, British Commonwealth, and EU rock artists, except Cat Stevens, makes this CD an essential purchase for both your ears AND your conscience. June 29, 2008

Who's gonna save me?

The follow-up to Midnight Oil's international breakthrough Diesel and Dust found the band with its convictions as strong as ever, but their sound toned back a touch. It is still a solid piece of agit-rock, and the equal to albums like 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Earth and Sun and Moon. The punch is what is different here. There is suddenly a dependence on slower numbers and the rockers are slicker than before.

Not that it would detract from the band's force. The lead single "Blue Sky Mine" is as fierce as anything on the previous album, including a scorcher of a harmonica intro and another sad tale of poverty in the outback. Impoverished workers who have little choice but to trudge into dangerous/unhealthy conditions and accept their paychecks are left to howl at the system

"and if the blue sky mining company
wont come to my rescue,
If the sugar refining company wont save me,
Who's gonna save me?"

Peter Garret's concerns for the environment (remember the concert on a flatbed in front of NYC's Exxon headquarters?) surface on "River Runs Red" and pointed political commentary comes out on "One Country." If only the entire album had the kick of the title track, "Forgotten Years" or "King of the Mountain" (these four songs all making it to Midnight Oil's 20,000 Watts R.S.L.: Greatest Hits), "Blue Sky Mining" might have been a second classic album for this underrated Aussie band. I've always considered this album to be coupled this with "Diesel" in the same way I've regarded 10, to 1 and
Red Sails in the Sunset to be halves to a chapter. I am also of the opinion that having them all is a good thing. December 11, 2007

Pop/rock standards with some mellow, green tinged politics

In my review here of Midnight Oil's "Red sails in the sunset" cd, I stated that that album and this one would vie for "best album after '10-1' or 'Diesel and dust'" status. Upon re-listening to those albums in order to review them here, I think "Red sails" gets the gong for that best album after the other ones.

However, "Blue Sky Mining" has the more commercial songs which were released as singles and which still get frequent airplay here in Australia-something which is rarer for the more arty "Red Sails" album. Those commercial songs include "Blue Sky Mine", "King of the mountain" and "Forgotten years".

As for "Blue Sky Mine", this is a song which I have perhaps underestimated due to its catchy pop hooks. Perhaps the lyrics elevate this song to "classic" status. My take on the meaning of the song is that it is a veiled condemnation of the Australian corporation James Hardie, which ran asbestos mines here in Australia and whose many workers contracted the horrific lung disease mesothelioma through working in blue asbestos mines or around them.

It has a cool lead guitar and keyboard melody, as well as a terrific harmonica melody too. The lyrics are narrative in style-from the perspective of a victim of "Blue Sky Mining". The dilemma facing these workers is outlined in the lyrics: "But if I work all day on the Blue Sky Mine there'll be food on the table tonight/there'll be pay in your pocket tonight". In other words, the dilemma is working in a hazardous environment versus not being able to make a living. Tough choice.

The next best song on the album is "King of the mountain". I'm not exactly sure what it is about, but there was a Beatles reference in it, perhaps, which may have confused things for me. The intro to the song is cool-good drums and guitar work, with parts of the song having a "London calling" feel to them [that's a The Clash song]. Peter Garrett, the quintessentially Australian sounding lead singer, varies his vocal style in this song...from rock vocals to more punkish vocals, with some pretty backing vocals by his band-mates. The outro to this song is a very nice [semi?] accoustic guitar melody.

The other song from this album which usually gets commercial FM radio airplay here is "Forgotten years". Not exactly sure what the song is about but I tend to view it as a song where the band perhaps make amends for fiercely anti-militaristic songs of theirs like "US forces". In other words, the band seems to pay tribute to the ANZACs [Australian and New Zealand Army Corps] whose deeds in World War I etc. contributed to world peace. Verses which illustrate this are: "Our shoreline was never invaded, our country was never in flames, this is the calm we breathe, this is a feeling to strong to contain, still it aches like tetanus, it is reeks of politics...". This is Midnight Oil at their lyrical best...and musical best too, with a good singalong chorus and nice melody. Synthesisers are evident and there is a very good, driving rhythym guitar riff.

It was my intention to rate this album 3.5 out of 5 for those three singles, but when I listened through tracks 7-10, I was pleasantly surprised by the nice mellow sounds and melodies of those songs...pretty much all songs of environmental protest [as are other songs from the first half of the album]. Really, after the main singles, above, you can't really say that any of the songs are memorable [which is not true for their more experimental album "Red sails in the sunset"] BUT, like I say for my recent review of a Suzanne Vega compilation, those songs on the second half of the album are mellow and pleasing to listen to.

Perhaps the best of these songs is "River runs red"-perhaps this album's 'Easter Egg' song. It is a slower paced song, with some nice lead guitar note picking, and a nice guitar bit where two guitars are prominent in juxtaposing melodies. Garrett employs a restrained vocal style [as for most of the songs in the latter half of the album] and sings of environmental exploitation and the inequality of resource allocation amongst the people of the Earth. You could say it is a nightmare scenario, where Mother Nature has slapped a hubristic humanity in the face. Features a nice melody and a pipe outro of some sort.

Lastly, I'll jut make a few notes of interest for some of the other songs on this album:

"Stars of Warburton": features tambourine, vocal harmonies. Mellow track.

"Bedlam Bridge": Moody sounding intro; visual cue lyrics giving snapshots of a city; ambient noise outro featuring streetscape noises which bleeds very nicely into "Forgotten years".

"Mountains of Burma": trippy intro, Beatle-esque. Green political lyrics, nice melody, and features horn and violins.

"Shakers and movers": has a guitar flavour reminiscent of the sound of the 60's 'British Invasion'. More lyrics about environmental degradation. Not a bad melody, restrained vocals and a talking/bongo outro.

"One country": features accoustic guitar, restrained vocals, melody. The guitar turns electric around half-way in, and violins turn up near the end.

"Antarctica": Not sure if I have a word for the style of this song, but maybe I could say it sort of sounds to me like a Slave song [not that I'd know!]. Features accoustic guitar, keyboard, drums played with a brush or some such, harmonies, piano, electric guitar, violins and breathy vocals. Another song with environmental themes.

Really, I own more Midnight Oil albums than would ordinarily have been the case. Was just planning on buying "10-1" and "Diesel and dust", but I went for the "value" option when I could buy multiple albums sold together. In my case, and these options may be available at Amazon, I got a three cd box set of "10-1" bundled with "Red sails in the sunset" and "Place without a postcard" [for around the price-just slightly over in fact-of an undiscounted cd] along with a double cd of "Diesel and dust" and "Blue Sky Mining".

I think these bundles are good options. The only album from these bundles I haven't reviewed here at Amazon is "Place without a postcard". That is Midnight Oil's most oddball album-sort of traditional/Australian folk type music. Not a dud, but not your typical Oils album.

Blue Sky Mining is definitely an album worth buying, and it sees the band come up with more typical Midnight Oil power pop/rock, along with their new foray into environmental issues, which is more gentle than their usual stuff but still a pleasure to listen to. November 22, 2007

Midnight Oil - Where Have They Gone?

Talk about a band that came and went way to fast. Midnight Oil were heavy players in their native Australia for years, but virtually unknown here in the U.S. That all changed with the Diesel And Dust album with it's huge hit Beds Are Burning in the late 80's. Blue Sky Mining was the follow up album which also did fairly well here in America. Then the band just kind of fell off the map. They made several albums after this one, but never returned to prominence in this country and only toured occasionally. I never quite understood what happened as Midnight Oil put out some great music and live they were fantastic. Blue Sky Mining is a great album, and it sounds as relevant today as it did 17 years ago (has it really been that long?). Every song on here is a winner. Instrumentally the band is fantastic and the vocals are all great as well. Highlights for me include, Blue Sky Mining, Forgotten Years, Mountains Of Burma, One Country, and Antarctica. Really every song on the disc is great. If you have never gotten into Midnight Oil this album is well worth checking out. If you already are a fan this album is essential. October 9, 2007

Favourite album of all time

This album is by far the most magical album I've ever heard. It's inspiration comes from from an enlightened perspective. Peter Garrett as a person is very selfless and it reflects in the music. The entire band together is phenomenal. I've seen them play live and they are even more amazing.

I like every different type of music. Rap, Metal, Rock, Top 40, D&B, Techno.. etc. And I keep coming back to this album every year. The longer I forget about it, the better it is when I come back to it. It is timeless and does not belong to the "90's". This album is not a tearjerker, and I'm not a crybaby, but I have cried to this album unwittingly on more than one occasion. The reason for feeling the emotions is because I just cannot fathom someone having such a lack of selfishness to sing the way they do. October 7, 2007

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