Earth and Sun and Moon

Midnight Oil appeared reinvigorated on 1993’s Earth and Sun and Moon, an album that showed the band evolving even as it reconnected with the raw rock 'n' roll of its earliest years. Part of that historicity is because the band was working once again with Nick Launay, who'd produced the Oils in the early '80s. The groaning, Doors-like surf rock of “Feeding Frenzy” echoes the group’s early tenure as one of Sydney's most popular bar bands, but the album as a whole feels like a move forward. The songs are more rhythmic and the arrangements more complex than on the band’s beloved hit singles. Drummer Rob Hirst plays a more important role than ever before, helping make “My Country,” “Renaissance," and “Bushfire” funkier and groovier than anything the Oils had done in the past. Yet this is also the group's heaviest album, as evinced by the hammering riffs of “Tell Me the Truth.” While the group remained committed to its social causes (environmentalism, Aboriginal rights, corporate greed), Earth and Sun and Moon feels less grandstanding and more personal than prior works.