Midnight Oil
Redneck Wonderland (Columbia)
Australia’s premier musical voice of conscience rebounds from the rare misstep that was 1996’s lackluster “Breathe” album with the searing “Redneck Wonderland.” With a cover picturing a rifle-toting kangaroo, this may be the Oils’ angriest album yet–which is saying something. Vocalist/frontman Peter Garrett and the band have never been shy about espousing their social, political and environmental beliefs, and this time around the subject seems to be a dystopian Australia. The Oils turn their collective eye to racism, the far right, the country’s increasing urbanization, suburban complacency, political apathy and a general sense of post-boom Aussie malaise. Hmmm . . . sounds a lot like America in the ’60s and ’70s. For the most part the music is as caustic and strident as the lyrics, with elements of electronica, but with nary a hint of the commercial guitar-rock sheen of their landmark “Diesel and Dust” and “Blue Sky Mining” albums. “Redneck Wonderland” may be bleak, but its charged messages resonate “Down Up” as well.
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