Midnight Oil "Scream In Blue"

Scream in Blue is a live album by Midnight Oil that was released in May 1992 under the Columbia Records label. It contains songs carefully culled from 5 live concerts recorded over a 9-year period. The audiences sound quite large, but also included is material from a 1990 protest concert held on the street in front of Exxon headquarters in New York City. The album is mixed so as to sound like one continuous concert.

The album starts with a scathing, nearly atonal electric guitar solo and never lets up (until the final, more subdued studio bonus track "Burnie"), careening through a hooky hard-rock minefield of clever, socially conscious lyrics sung with passion over a rip-roaring but very tight band. The tracks were evidently recorded through the sound systems of the various concerts, then mixed to a clear and well-balanced sound in the style of audio verité. Also, at the end of Only the Strong, a short sound sample is inserted containing some chanting by unidentified American Indians which also sounds passionately rendered, although jarringly out of context.