Midnight Oil -Place Without a Postcard
#594
By Ray Koltys
November 1981
Midnight Oil
Place Without A Postcard
Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Ray’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Aussie Alt Rock
Highlights:
Don’t Wanna Be The One
Armistice Day
Basement Flat
I came to appreciate Midnight Oil in 1982, when “10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1” was released, drawn by it’s big single, The Power And The Passion. To this day the dynamic horn-section outro to that track thrills me when I hear it. I own that album and its followup, “Red Sails In The Sunset” on vinyl. One of the latter’s highlight tracks, Best Of Both Worlds, again sports a horn section.
We know that Midnight Oil went on to fame with the singles Beds Are Burning and Blue Sky Mine on subsequent albums, but I was curious to know what they had sounded like earlier, so I jumped at the opportunity to review Place Without A Postcard, from 1981.
My first reaction was that the production is much more spare. Where are the horns? There are keyboards on a few tracks, but this is primarily a guitar and drums album.
It turns out that Place Without a Postcard was produced by Glyn Johns, with whom the band had some creative differences, and they weren’t very happy with the outcome. A year later they had landed a deal with Columbia Records, and those next two albums were produced by Nick Launey, who had also had worked XTC, Peter Gabriel, and PiL. Evidently from the horns, the boys were given a bit more of a budget, too.
Like later Midnight Oil, the songs themselves dabble in politics, whimsy, and Aussie references, but most of these are just not particularly interesting. Of note:
Don’t Wanna Be The One – Upbeat track with plenty of keyboards, this would have been right at home on any alt rock playlist from 1981.
Armistice Day – I have listened several times, and looked over the lyrics, and I am still not sure what this song is about. Armistice Day, war is bad, we are political? Being an unhappy political song, it is a bit downbeat.
Basement Flat – Like everyone who has lived in a city, one of more of the boys has evidently lived in a crappy apartment. Actual lyric: “People upstairs make so much noise. Drive me mad with their electrical toys.” Are they actual saying: “Look, we don’t only write songs about politics and war and exploitation!”?
This album sports some solid musicianship, and Peter Garrett’s vocals are every bit as large and edgy as they were later on, when the band enjoyed greater success. But I find that it is merely good, not memorable. If you want to listen to some alt rock from that era that has a lot more fun covering some of the same ground, try XTC’s “Black Sea” from 1980.
https://open.spotify.com/album/74oKegvoiMdi6V8KJZD7Zp?si=p6eii6ApQEmaxSCNwUVE1Q
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