MIDNIGHT OIL: Resist (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

In 2020, after 18 years of absence, Midnight Oil made a remarkable return on the front of the scene through a mini-album, The Makarrata Project, a project once again eminently political. On this occasion, the band revealed that about twenty tracks had been written, and "Resist" allows the band to give an existence to the whole of this production, signing by this way its musical testament at the end of the tour programmed for the summer 2022.

Of course, the themes denounced for all these decades by Peter Garrett are still present on this last work, his commitments in favor of the planet or the survival of the first peoples being at the head of the list, and the only reading of the titles of the album and the different tracks are enough to summarize all the rage which continues to live in the Australians.

Musically, we find the usual Midnight Oil's gimmicks, and 'Rising Seas' which opens the ball proposes us a very classic beginning, quickly rythmed with a catchy melody. This energy is found in many tracks, well supported by the rhythmic and singing bass of the late Bones Hillman ('At the Time of Writing') and the usual sharp guitars that give an immediately recognizable sound color. The band also keeps the art of proposing choruses sounding like real anthems which, without carrying all the power of a 'Beds are Burning' resound in the head long after their listening ('At the Time of Writing', 'Reef' and even more 'Last Frontier').

However, after so much fighting, the band seems to contain its rage somewhat, evolving in a kind of final appeasement, and the presence of an acoustic track like 'We're not Afraid', supported by a string quartet, or the second part of 'The Barka-Darling River' sound like a (relative) confidence in the future.

In spite of the commendable intention to propose all the material composed during the last sessions, the album turns out to be a bit long, lacking variety over the duration. But the context excuses without problem this small downside.

Without reaching the summits of their discography, "Resist" is a perfect end for a band which, if it didn't know a continuous success all along its existence, will have marked in an indelible way the generations who lived the years 80-90 to the sound of their successive anthems. Respect. - Official website

MIDNIGHT OIL

RESIST

SONY MUSIC

ROCK