Midnight Oil Species Deceases

The spiteful, sarcastic “Progress”—the leadoff cut on Midnight’s Oil’s 1985 EP Species Deceases—offers what's probably the most succinct example of the band’s ethos. The verse finds frontman Peter Garrett sputtering with rage: “Got your last meal, filled up with pesticide/Hamburger chain, third-world infanticide/Got robot car, your jobs will disappear/It’s the politics of a brand-new year.” Though the record is brief, its material gives it heft. The careening “Blossom and Blood” might be the last explosion from the young band’s punk origins, but “Hercules” and “Pictures” clear the way for a powerful future. Both tunes are stormy but steady, determined to walk proudly into a dark and uncertain future. “Because we can't go on, living like this,” hollers Garrett on “Pictures.” It may sound bleak on paper, but by the end of the song he’s inviting listeners to join the Oils’ forward march. “We’re really going to change it, the crucial mass approaches, I can almost hear it, ah!” he sings as the flow of his words is overtaken by the bloodthirsty urgency of his mission.