Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mining

Midnight Oil burst onto the TV screens all over America in 1987 with the videos to “Beds Are Burning” and “The Dead Heart.” It was like they were from another world. Well, they kinda were. They were from the other side of the world, at least: Australia. But their follow-up album, 1990’s “Blue Sky Mining,” proved the Oils were more than just a one- (or two-)hit wonder, or just a vehicle to showcase the frenetic dancing of the tall, lanky, and bald lead singer Peter Garrett. “Blue Sky Mining” brought a rich album across the oceans, an album full of Oils topics du jour: the environment, overdevelopment, the plight of indigenous people, and so on.  “There are people who do it really well,” R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe once said about artists who sing about politics. Garrett was one of them, with Stipe calling him “brilliant.” “Blue Sky Mining” is brilliant in its own right with Midnight Oil creating anthemic, rocking sing-alongs that just so happen to be about asbestos mining, war, or killing the earth.