What? Another self-titled album? At least in all cases they are debut albums, which is probably more appropriate than any other time. Midnight Oil's first album also falls into the venerable tradition of minimalist design, resulting in color nicknames. For example, Metallica's "Black Album", the Beatles "White Album", and Weezer's three "color" albums, all of which are self-titled. Here we present....the Blue Album.
Somewhat like QOTSA's debut (see the previous post) this is a mostly raw and somewhat loose production. Those who only know stuff like "Beds Are Burning" will find this album astonishingly different from that period. In the early and mid-1970's the band was largely a pub band with a classic rock repertoire, but got swept up in punk, which is evident on this album. The scorching opener, "Powderworks", was about as heavy as they ever got. However, many of the other songs are considerably more laid-back, especially the dreamy "Surfing with a Spoon" and the too-long "Nothing Lost-Nothing Gained", which is, in fact, the longest song the band has ever recorded. Rockers "Used and Abused" and "Run By Night" were the singles selected from the album.
The next album, Head Injuries, turned down the keyboards and ramped up the guitars, resulting in a much heavier album overall, though I still think of "Powerworks" as their heaviest stand-alone song. Bassist Andrew James quit the band shortly thereafter, though the first release with Peter Gifford on the four-stringed fish (the EP Bird Noises) didn't seem any less heavy and I don't think James had a huge influence on their sound. Growing dissatisfaction with production and the scene in general led to a transitional album (Place Without a Postcard) that fed nicely into 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 and a new era of far sleeker production and global fame.
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