Earth And Sun And Moon Arkansas

Earth And Sun And Moon

Midnight Oil

Columbia Records, 1993

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/07/1998

Sometimes, I can't explain why certain things are in the PierceArchives. Oh, I can explain why Space Ritual from Hawkwind is in there (it had LemmyKilmister - hoo, what a mistake that was!), I can explain why In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida from Iron Butterfly is in there (it waspsychedelic, so it had to be cool - and it was). I can even explainwhy Wham! is in there (it was a quarter, gimme a break).

But for the love of me, I can't figure out why I bought Earth And Sun And Moon from Midnight Oil back in 1993. I'madmittedly not big into Midnight Oil, and this particular albumdidn't get a lot of airplay. The only reason I can think I boughtit is that the music on it was so damn good.

Peter Garrett and crew had experienced superstardom with theirreleases Diesel And Dust and Blue Sky Mining, but it almost felt like the band wanted toescape from the "hit single" mode they seemed to be locked into atthis point. What this spelled for Midnight Oil was a return tomusic for the sake of the song, not the sake of the charts. Thiscould have been career suicide in the eyes of the suits, but itstill resulted in a very fine record that did have hit singlepotential.

In one sense, Earth And Sun And Moon spelled a move away fromguitar-driven songs, and more emphasis on the organ work of JimMoginie. In my mind, an excellent idea. The opening track "FeedingFrenzy," which builds up from Bones Hillman's unique bass work,creates such a vast layering of sound that this could have been amasterpiece for the band.