Decent album, but not essential

This album sounds about what you'd expect the band to sound like between the albums Head Injuries and 10-9-8-7. There are some good songs, notably Brave Faces, Burnie, Quinella Holiday, and Loves For Sale.

The main problem with this album is the production. This is probably the worse MO album from a production and mixing perspective. Even the preceding album, Head Injuries, sounds a lot better (more crystal clear), and also has better songs. If this album was remixed/remastered, it would be much more liked. Still, a stereo with an equalizer can make this album sound fairly good.

Although not an essential album for casual MO fans, this still belongs in all MO fanatic collections.

Great music produced by a deaf man!

In the Woody Allen film Hollywood Ending, Allen's character watches clips of a film he was shooting while he was suffering from temporary blindess. After it's over he says "Call Dr. Kevorchian! This movie looks like it was shot by a blind man!"

Place Without A Postcard sounds like an album that was produced by someone who had their ears full of cotton. Glyn Johns had always made music sound very fresh and clear in the past as with The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Clash. But this time around, Midnight Oil sound like they were playing inside of a tin can.

This is a shame too because if you can actually get your ears past the muddy sounds, you can hear some good things going on. A song like Brave Faces stands out remarkably well in a live setting (see live album Scream In Blue) even if it is compositionally unconventional. The same can be said for Basement Flat; a very good song but it sounds like the beginning was recorded in a basement flat itself. Written In The Heart, Quinella Holiday and Loves On Sale all come at you with the energy of their sophomore album Head Injuries, but sound too tame to be taken seriously. Lucky Country keeps the tradition of the album up being a glorious sounding song but paired with the sonics that make it sound esoteric.

Coming after the crispness that makes Head Injuries an early Midnight Oil favorite, Place Without A Postcard comes across as a small letdown. But if the production job were better, I might even call this album underrated. Only then would you appreciate the anti-militantism of the single Armistice Day.

Midnight Oil's least successful experiment

Midnight Oil began as a surf-music-inpsired, politically-conscious hard rock band in the late 1970s. Their second album, HEAD INJURIES (1979), is one of the best hard rock albums to come out of Australia during that era (along with, yes, Acy Deecy's BACK IN BLACK). In the early 1980s, however, the band began experimenting with different sounds and different types of song structures. PLACE WITHOUT A POSTCARD is the first (and least successful) result of this change in direction.



The main problem with the album (as others have pointed out) is that the production is terrible. Midnight Oil travelled all the way over to Great Britain to work with Glyn Johns and ended up with this? The songs are, for the most part, pretty good. "Brave Faces," "Don't Wanna Be the One," "Lucky Country," and "Someone Else to Blame" are all potent political rockers just begging for better production. Other highlights include "Armistice Day," "Quinella Holiday," and "If Ned Kelly Were King."



The CD certainly anticipates the epic 10,9,8,7.... but it is hard to recommend it to anyone other than the most ardent Midnight Oil fan. It's better than the debut record and certainly has great potential, but they don't quite pull it off. It's kind of a bummer, because there is potential here for it to be a classic.