Midnight Oil has not made an album since 2002 and after the huge success of a tour of small venues a few years ago they thought a new album would be the best way to build off that success. “The Makarrata Project” is their 12th studio album but they essentially tricked their fans into anticipation of new material with the potential of touring the huge stadiums with Covid19 behind us, with an album they did not need to make in the first place.
Every single song has other people on it that take away from the songs itself with either rapping, people speaking in other languages or other people singing including two whole songs that is someone else-but not them. The last song is people speaking the Uluru Statement from the Heart and only four minutes into it do you get a short song.
If you are going to make a point about injustices in the world like with songs “Blue Sky Mine” and “Beds are Burning” about what their own Australian government was doing to their own people that is fine. Those songs can make a point but also can be great music as they are two of their greatest songs.
If you are going to shed light on the disenfranchised/disrespected people then you can still be the philanthropist that lead singer Peter Garrett has been, doing charity work/charity concerts. This album is making a point to shed light on Indigenous people’s adversities and to uplift them by having them on the album but that is not what the fans of Midnight Oil have been waiting almost twenty years for. It is a waste that this was bassist/backing vocalist Bones Hillman last album before we lost him to cancer.
Some of the songs are good but if every single one gets constantly interrupted by others that aren’t in the band then it takes away from enjoying any of the songs. As “First Nation” and “Gadigal Land” do have their moments where they rock out and “Change the Date” and “Wind in my Hand” are nice quiet songs but they just get ruined by other elements. Hopefully Garrett and company try again with an even an EP of sorts of their unique style of rock music and if so the fans will again run to listen to it like myself.