Midnight Oil's second international release found them ambitiously taking on a variety of lyrical causes in a variety of musical styles. Their basic approach, with its martial rhythms, chanted vocals, and guitar textures, served as a jumping-off place, but they always sounded more assured when they stuck to that, rather than trying other things. And the unrelentingly judgmental tone of the lyrics, sung with dead seriousness by
Peter Garrett, tended to douse the album's potential enjoyment, too. (It's hard to dance when you're being lectured to.) It wasn't much of a surprise when
Garrett decided to run for the Australian Senate shortly after this album's release. ~ William Ruhlmann