Song Contest Part XV, Host: Back One Out, Theme: Woodwind Instruments, Votes Due: Sunday 10pm AEDT

[Broken]

This barnburster is sadly missing from this round

 

[_Rake_]

Elton Johns Wig I've made a fair bit of progress on my top 50, but I think I'll have to separate it out into tiers before I can put forward a final copy. I get the sense that we may may a fair bit of alignment though as far as songs go. Anyway, my album list:

13. Bird Noises (1980) - If you're only going to bring out four songs they better be worth it.

12. Breathe (1996) - A massive disappointment. There's a good reason Pete's the only band member who likes this album in retrospect, and it's probably the album his solo effort a couple of years ago was most similar to (although Great White Shark was a better song than anything on here, probably because it sounds more like ESM).

11. Redneck Wonderland (1998) - Has a couple more saving graces than Breathe, but went too far in the opposite direction.

The remaining ten are all good, so naturally apologies to those near the bottom of the list.

10. Midnight Oil (1978) - I know, I know. But other than Run by Night, I've always felt this one was more about showing off what they could do and be. At this point they were a superb live band who just happened to get a concert recorded, so to speak.

9. Blue Sky Mining (1990) - Two of my absolute favourites of theirs are on here, which tells you what the rest of the album is like to be this low. It grabs me for a song, and then puts me to sleep, then does it again, and again.

8. Capricornia (2002) - Honestly good enough to make you wonder what could've been if not for politics.

7. Place Without a Postcard (1981) - An album that could've been great - production quality and lack of sharpness to the songs prevented it from really having blowing us away.

6. Head Injuries (1979) - Not too many album covers more iconic in this country. Takes what they did with Midnight Oil and sharpens it to its utmost point - raw pub rock at its finest. If they'd just produced albums like this for the rest of the career, no-one would've been too upset.

5. Earth and Sun and Moon (1993) - But they didn't, which is why we ended up with ESM. There's a real consistent quality to this one - it doesn't really hit any lows - and it's got at least as many high as Blue Sky Mining. Should've been bigger than it was, but apparently Truganini was too Australian for America.

4. Species Deceases (1985) - Pictures is the only song on here I don't really care about - if only this had been a whole album.

3. Diesel and Dust (1987) - A couple of songs on here that I really don't like, but overall a consistently high quality record. Unfortunately I've heard Beds Are Burning and The Dead Heart so much that they've lost their impact, but Dreamworld and Sometimes are better songs anyway. There's definitely some kind of middle-of-the-road quality to the album though, I can't exactly explain it, but it stops it from being top two for me.

2. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (1982) - This is their best album, but it's not my favourite. Incredible atmosphere and a consistent message that manages to get in your head despite very little pop influence (unlike D&D).

1. Red Sails in the Sunset (1984) - My number one. I used to say that the only song on there I didn't like was Bakerman, but I've come round to it too. It's a bit experimental, it doesn't have the thematic consistency of 10, 9, 8, but I don't care. I love the different sounds they play with from Jimmy Sharman's Boxers to Helps Me Helps You to Bells and Horns in the Back of Beyond, I love that Hirst got to sing, you can play it at random and have a good time. It's a testament to the quality of the band that they were able to do so much and sound great throughout.

Ouch, Elty.

 

[The Speaker]

We need to do a Hunters and Collectors retrospective.

Demon Flower was a better 90s album than anything the Oils produced.

Demon Flower vs Earth and Sun and Moon is a good contest.

If you want to do an album ranking of theirs, go ahead - I'll match it too. Probably my no. 2 behind the Oils.

 

[The Speaker]

This barnburster is sadly missing from this round

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[Broken]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[_Rake_]

B.

 

[Plugger35]

Demon Flower vs Earth and Sun and Moon is a good contest.

If you want to do an album ranking of theirs, go ahead - I'll match it too. Probably my no. 2 behind the Oils.

The first single off Demon Flower.




The ball's in your court.

Demon Flower is an amazing album, the Hunners were criticised for selling out with Holy Grail/True Tears of Joy off the Cut album from 92/93.

They responded with Demon Flower which is one of the great forgotten albums of the 90s, came out in 1994 and got swamped by grunge.

I didn't forget it, I bought it and it sits proudly in my 80 high CD stack.

 

[por_please_ya]

The Speaker you've made me want to listen some of those Midnight Oil albums
I've got Dreamworld in my head. I think that won some rounds back.

 

[Plugger35]

Hard to argue with this Hunters and Collectors performance on Countdown.

They had horns, a brass section, it set them apart from other Aussie pub bands from that era.

 

[Plugger35]

I didn't mind this song either just quietly.

 

[Plugger35]

Pretty silly arguing over who is better out of the Oils and the Hunners as they aren't even in my top 5 Aussie bands.

My top 5 for the record.

1. The Church
2. Divinyls
3. The Panics
4. GANGgajang
5. Faker

Hard to break into that line up.

 

[Drunkgoliath]

You forgot about KISS, at least number 3

 

[The Speaker]

The Speaker you've made me want to listen some of those Midnight Oil albums
I've got Dreamworld in my head. I think that won some rounds back.

A deserving winner too. Doesn't get anywhere near the radio play it deserves, I think I've only heard it on the Christian station over here, which is also true of this song:

I didn't mind this song either just quietly.

 

[Marklar_33]

The mid noughties were a hot mess as far as grand final entertainment went. Of the grand finals that I went to, 2012 made up for 2005 and 2006, although more for Paul Kelly than for Temper Trap. Tim Rogers was performing in the stand while I was walking in, but the acoustics were poor were he was, so you couldn't tell if he was good or bad.

The acoustics are usually always poor in the G, that’s why I can’t believe Meatloaf gets such a bad rap...

 

[Plugger35]

 

[Hoos]

The acoustics are usually always poor in the G, that’s why I can’t believe Meatloaf gets such a bad rap...

He was horribly out of key, which may be part of the reason.

 

[DroopStDanny]

You cannot defend Meatloaf for his performance. If you didn't know better you'd think they pulled some fat, alcoholic, cerebral palsy afflicted person from the crowd and gave him a microphone whereupon he decided to have a massive stroke whilst simultaneously 'singing' and trying to squeeze the world's largest turd from his arse. (The back up singing was fine; he should've taken his key from the dark haired bird.)



The following week Lionel Richie was great at short notice and I say that as someone who is not even a fan of his.

 

[Marklar_33]

You cannot defend Meatloaf for his performance. If you didn't know better you'd think they pulled some fat, alcoholic, cerebral palsy afflicted person from the crowd and gave him a microphone whereupon he decided to have a massive stroke whilst simultaneously 'singing' and trying to squeeze the world's largest turd from his arse. (The back up singing was fine; he should've taken his key from the dark haired bird.)



The following week Lionel Richie was great at short notice and I say that as someone who is not even a fan of his.

Lionel Richie was the year before

 

[DroopStDanny]

Lionel Richie was the year before

Indeed it was; I stand corrected.

 

[por_please_ya]

I didn't mind this song either just quietly.

My fave. Imaginary Girl is also nice.

 

[ArdentEagle]

Ohhhh - Peeping Tom (Mojo)
One of my favs

 

[Ulahoopski]

 

[William Wonka]

Ula would you like to be on the podcast with Loons?

Ulahoopski and SM

The Beatles are not s**t, but I think they are overrated. The first part of their catalogue is not flash.

There is a far superior (musically) band from that era in Britain that got nowhere near the popularity.

The Kinks. The quality and consistency of their output is significantly greater.

I adore the Kinks but I think calling them 'far superior' musically to The Beatles is just plain wrong.
What you say about their early stuff is correct but solo/side project stuff covers that easily.

The Kinks missed out on the US market to a huge degree which limited them and I think was what stopped them reaching the heights of The Beatles/Stones as did lacking a real standout worldwide hit like Straits/Queen/Zepplin.

 

[Drunkgoliath]

I would get around to listening to the playlist sometime today, but there's an important hockey game from yesterday that I need to watch first

 

[raskolnikov]

Midnight Oil are s**t.