This Friday, February 18, 2022, is to be marked with a milestone because some very good albums have been released with, in my last chronicles, in progressive metal, the latest album from 'Arjen Lucassen', in progressive rock, the latest album from 'Jonas Lindberg' and in melodic rock and hard rock the latest 'Ten' but it was also on this day that the Australians of 'Midnight Oil' also released their new album 'RESIST' exactly 20 years after their last album 'Capricornia' which marked the end group, 'Peter Garrett' having decided to go into politics full time to defend his ecological ideas (he will be elected Minister of Ecology in 2007). So, put a new 'Midnight Oil' between our ears, I think a good number of historical fans, who are now in the 50/60 age bracket, didn't think it would be possible, but 'RESIST' is a new album of 'Midnight Oil' after the EP 'The Makarrata Project' released in 2020 which was not strictly speaking a pure 'Midnight Oil' album but which featured Aboriginal First Nations people in order to highlight injustices from which these peoples suffer.
First of all, the title 'RESIST' demonstrates that the fight of the leader 'Peter Garrett', who was a sort of modern-day hero for the fans of the 80s/90s, is still relevant and that at 68 now, he continues his fights with always the same motto: "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees". Then, for all those who lived through the 80s/90s when they were teenagers or young adults, are there many who have not listened, one day, to 'Beds Are Burning' which demanded the restitution of their native lands to the aborigines and which became a world anthem by making the album 'Diesel and Dust' a timeless album and which, personally, turned over and over many times when it was released in 1987.
The whole is therefore turned towards the problems of today and tomorrow: at the start with 'Rising Seas' (see the video above), it is the climate crisis, which is the theme and, after a beautiful and refined introduction, memories come back of this style so characteristic of Australians with a catchy chorus that we already want to sing along with 'Peter Garrett'. Follows an equally lively 'The Barka-Darling River' in a muscular rock which takes a completely different turn in the middle of the title with a magnificent piano/voice part which then continues with a very endearing ballad. In an energetic style bringing us back to the signature 'Midnight Oil' of the beginnings (the rhythm section of the bass of 'Bones Hillman' who died in 2020 also has a lot to do with it), we can also quote 'At The Time of Writing', ' To The Ends Of The Earth', 'Reef', 'Lost At Sea' or 'Undercover' without forgetting 'Nobody's Child' which brings us back to the beginning of hard rock. But this 'RESIST' is also dotted with lighter compositions (I speak musically), because the group has also decided to express its ecological fight through more moderate compositions like 'Tarkine' (see the video here), 'We Resist' (see the video here), 'We Are Not Afraid' or even 'Last Frontier' which offers us a unifying chorus and a last strong message: "Who will repair the damage we continue to do?".
In summary, we find the Australians of 'Midnight Oil' as we had left them twenty years earlier with always this desire to fight and to 'RESIST' and with anthems that we have immense pleasure in to listen. Let's hope it won't be the last as 'Peter Garrett' suggests... | |
