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Midnight Oil

Chiko Locallo ( 1987-2001) - Sony 2017

Tracks: 1. Ships of Freedom / 2. What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding / 3. Heaven and Earth / 4. Cemetery in My Mind / 5. The Real Thing / 6. The Last of the Diggers / 7. Spirit of the Age / 8. You May Not Be Released / 9. Kiss That Girl / 10. Wharf Rat / 11. I See You / 12. Smash the Wobble Board / 13. The Great Gibber Plain / 14. Land / 15. Frontier... What Frontier? / 16. Devilfish Shuffle / 17. Kingdom of Flaunt

Comments:

"Chiko Locallo" is a collection of rarities by Midnight Oil originally released from 1987 to 2001. Twelve numbers are originally B-pages; Three tracks originate from "The Real Thing" released in 2000 and which was a mix of live and new studio recordings. "Kiss That Girl" comes from the European version of "Capricornia", while "Land" is from a benefit release from 1994. It’s obvious that there must be some discrepancy over numbers recorded over such a long period, but there is, however, quite a large degree of homogeneity, which may be due to the fact that the group was very stable without line-up changes during this period. Of course, it also helps a lot that the quality of the songs is as high as is the case. Apart from the last three tracks, these are not numbers that were hidden away as obscure B-sides by lack of quality; On the contrary, there are many really great songs that would have fitted nicely on their contemporary albums. From the "Diesel and Dust

" (1987) period comes their cover version of Nick Lowe's classic "What's So Funny ’Bout Peace, Love and Understanding"; Naturally delivered convincingly by Midnight Oil. Also from this period comes the slightly dark but fine "You May Not Be Released". From the time around "Blue Sky Mining" (1990) comes "Wharf Rat", which was the group's contribution to the Grateful Dead tribute album "Deadicated" – quite a nice version.

From "Earth and Sun and Moon" time comes the great B-side "Ships of Freedom", which very sensibly opens "Chiko Locallo" - a very melodic and folkish song and one of the album's absolute highlights. "Earth and Sun and Moon" may be my favorite Oil album, as the group here show themselves at their most melodic side.

From the time around the slightly obscure and overlooked "Breathe" album (1996), the B-sides "I See You" and "Smash the Wobble Board" come. Both numbers bear the mark of descending from this period, where the group experimented with new sounds and expressions; E.g., some splashing underwater sounds. This made "Breathe" the perhaps least accessible Midnight Oil album, which, however, does contains fine songs such as "Surf's Up Tonight", "Home", "E-Beat" and "One Too Many". Of these two b-sides I find "I See You" the best.

The song "Cemetary in My Mind" is also available on "Redneck Wonderland"; the version here is a different version that was released on a B-side in 1997; like this album on the whole "Cemetary in My Mind" is a pretty hard rocking number, with a fine melodic chorus. The same applies to the contemporary "Heaven and Earth", which however lacks the melodic chorus.

The numbers from "The Real Thing" (2001) are all fine and generally more melodic than those from the "Redneck Wonderland" period. Slightly back to the "Earth and Sun and Moon" sound.

The group's so far last album "Capricornia" was a strong return to the melodic style and a beautiful "preliminary" full-sto. . "Kiss That Girl" from the European edition of this album is another of the greatest highlights of Chiko Locallo ".

The CD last three numbers, all of which were B-sides in the period 1996-98, I will pass in brief. They can only be interesting for hard-core collectors and are in my ears mostly noisy and annoying.

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