Midnight Oil Breathe

Breathe was a gutsy move for Midnight Oil in 1996. After three globally successful albums full of cinematic political anthems, the Australian legends headed in a bold new direction, bashing out a mix of moody, mysterious-sounding alt-rockers and folk-inspired ballads like the Emmylou Harris-assisted “Home” that feel as if they’re covered in desert dust. It’s a tenacious guitar record, to boot: on the lead single “Underwater” and “Star of Hope”, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey lay down the sort of thorny and tangled licks that would make Crazy Horse proud. Of course, no Oils record is ever truly absent of political insights. But as the strumming “Time to Heal” indicates, singer Peter Garrett—whose voice is set deeper in the mix throughout—blends them with reflections on life that are, if not spiritual, certainly philosophical.