throughout 1986 i accrued my own cassette collection of the midnight oil discography as it then stood. in general this process entailed obtaining more recent releases (e.g. 'red sails in the sunset', 'species deceases') first, and older releases (e.g. debut self-titled album, 'bird noises') last.
i was about to say i have since lost all of these cassettes but as i recall i think that andy macrae ended up with many of them when i left brisbane to go travelling in 1992. i believe that when i last visited him in melbourne in 2000 he still had these; which is fine by me - i know they're in safe hands.
over the past couple of years i have acquired 2nd-hand cd versions of '10-1' and 'place without a postcard' and occasionally look around for well-priced and/or 2nd-hand copies of their other releases. there are still some post-'diesel & dust' releases (most of htem actually) which i have never heard in full.
as far as their albums go, in my opinion it is very hard to go past '10-1' as a very good, solid album from start to finish. there are so many good tracks, which have been 'classic' midnight oil tracks - on this one.
briefly, some highlights for me from their other prior releases include:
- from 'place without a postcard': brave faces, don't wanna be the one
- from 'bird noises' ep: wedding cake island (great instrumental), no time for games
- from 'head injuries': 'back on the borderline', 'stand in line', 'cold cold change'
- from 'midnight oil': 'powderworks', some long guitar-ortiented track or maybe it's the intro to 'surfing with a spoon'?, 'run by 'night'
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