Head Injuries - 1979
Straight off the bat this is a better sounding album than its predecessor. Better produced and more grunt. Just one look at the cover shot and you get a pretty good idea of what you are in for.
Press play and
Cold Cold Change comes barging out at you, the guitars of Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey gelling into the classic and distinctive Oil's guitar sound. This is a great song, ballsy and bold. Straight away you are taken to a place that is less "produced" (but with better production), more raucous, more live than anything from the first album, and my God it sounds so much the better for it. Love this song, love that it fully announces who these guys really are and what they are about. 4.5 stars.
Onto song 2 and we are off to the lovely (?) Bondi Beach.
Section Five (Bus to Bondi) is a bit of a different beast in that it shows some of the progressive, post-punk musical choices/flourishes that the band experimented with on parts of this album. It's not bad for that really, but Midnight Oil, even at this early stage of their career, would seem to be a good enough band and enough in control of their own musical output to make generally good decisions about their sounds. I can't actually think of what I'd call a straight up
bad Oils song at this point. Granted, that may well change by the time I'm through this LAL, but we'll get to that if we get to it. Still, this tune starts out with a quirkly little organ(?) riff, but soon enough the rest of the band kicks in and takes the tune away. No idea what the lyrics are about, except that perhaps Pete seems quite happy to get to have a swim at the beach. Which is nice. The bass line in this song kicks arse too. 3 stars.
Track 3 is
Naked Flame and this starts off with a falsetto screech from Garrett over a repeating clean riff and a cowbell beat. What's not to love? This song travels a quirky musical path, meandering and changing up as it goes. Keeps it interesting, but not particularly great. I'll leave it with a 2 star rating I think.
Happily track 4 gets us back to what we are here for.
Back on the Borderline is a straight up slab of rock, with all the usual Midnight Oil pieces in place. The guitar interplay in this is again classic Midnight Oil - these guys seemed to manage to lock in to each other in a manner similar to Angus and Malcolm Young, but without the fireworks, but with far more sophisticated and interesting patterns. Great stuff. 3.5 stars here.
Koala Sprint is track 5 and this is one of the first times that I hear Midnight Oil playing with the idea of the space available in their music. Over the course of their albums I've often enjoyed most the few songs they put out with surprisingly open soundboards - it wasn't all pedal to the metal pub rock, the louder the better. Here they move around a bit and the song goes through a few distinct sections before an extended instrumental run out. A curious, interesting piece this. 2.5 stars.
Onto
No Reaction, track 6. This could be The Angels listenning to the openning guitar riffage. That's not a terrible thing by any means, just saying is all. This is a fairly straight forward rocker with a very cool rolling drum beat by Mr Hirst, who, as ever, is no shrinking violet behind the kit. I actually quite enjoy this tune and note the first appearance of Peter Garrett's harmonica on this one. This is also another of the various "complacency" songs that I mentioned in my first album review. That appeals to me. This is a 3 star deal.
Track 7 is, in my opinion, the first stone cold Midnight Oil classic.
Stand In Line just fucking rocks. I love everything about it and can listen to it pretty much over and over when the mood suits. A great song to throw on the stereo to get yourself charged before heading out on a Friday or Saturday night. 5 stars, easy.
The album closes at 8 tracks with
Profiteers, a calming come down after the rawk of Stand in Line. No idea what the lyrics are all about at all, but the music is, as ever, solid and goes to some interesting places. Finishes the album with a clean pallette as Hirst's marching drum beat on his snare closes it out. 3 stars.
This was a pretty easy listen and highlights the growth of the band since the first album, as well as clearly showing the experience and smarts they were obviously gaining from their relentless touring of the time. This album set the groundworks for what was to come and showed them really trying out some interesting things and developing their own Midnight Oil sound.
Overall it averages out at a solid 3.3, which seems about right compared to the first album's 2.7. These guys are getting better.
The cover art on this one is great too. That's a pretty iconic image here and one that is instantly recognisable to almost any Australian. The equally iconic "hand" logo came from the liner notes included with this album. It's been used extensively since and is pretty cool imo.