Midnight Oil Place Without A Postcard

Their first release for a major label, 1981’s Place Without a Postcard set the stage for Midnight Oil’s climb to international alt-rock stardom later in the decade. While the record contains plenty of the punk-fuelled hard rock captured on their first two LPs (“Written In the Heart” is a prime example), the Oils were looking to inject more songcraft and melody into their music. For this reason they flew to England to record with Glyn Johns, legendary for his work with The Who and The Rolling Stones. On stand-outs like “Don’t Wanna Be the One” and “If Ned Kelly Was King”, the producer helps the group strike a balance between emotional urgency and radio-friendly tunefulness. There’s also a newfound sense of scale, as heard on the massive-sounding “Armistice Day”: Peter Garrett spits anti-war invective over a methodically marching backbeat on what would become a live staple and one of the Oils’ most beloved political anthems.