The dead heart (Midnight Oil) (LP 3217 - 3220)

Midnight Oil  Diesel And Dust (CD, CBS Records, 1987) ****  

Midnight Oil  Blue Sky Mining (CD, CBS Records, 1990) ****  

Midnight Oil  Earth And Sun And Moon (CD, Columbia Records, 1993) **** 

Midnight Oil  Breathe (CD, Sony Music, 1996) ****  

Genre: Rock

Places I remember: The Warehouse, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Dead Heart (Diesel and Dust)

Gear costume: Surf's Up Tonight (Breathe)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: It was the Power and the Passion video/single that alerted me to the existence of this bunch of Aussie battlers. Up to then I'd preferred Cold Chisel to this angry mob. The video was iconic and the sloganistic song was full of passion and power.

After that song I was onboard for the next four albums (1987 - 96), starting with Diesel And Dust, fueled by the hit song - Beds Are Burning. Seemed these guys had some brains to go with the muscle, after all. Those gang backing vocals/harmonies are brilliant.

The rest of the album is as melodic, thoughtful, exuberant as Beds Are Burning, so I was keen for whatever was next and next turned out to be the equally wonderful Blue Sky Mining.

After the breakthrough one two punch of Diesel/Blue Sky they managed to maintain the momentum with their next two releases.

Earth etc has another great single amongst it - Truganini. That and the rest of the album continues their well established approach - songs about the environment, the native peoples and social causes. All within a catchy rock format. No mean feat!

The final album in my list is Breathe. It may well be my favourite of the four because it's a fresh kind of approach for them - a bit rawer and more stripped back than the big production of the previous albums.

I think it's their most cohesive effort and a necessary change in approach. They can't keep doing those big melodic anthems forever, and Breathe is well named. They take a collective breath and ease into an excellent set of songs.

Where do they all belong? For some reason I stopped collecting their albums after Breathe and bizarrely, I don't have a compilation.