Album · Midnight Oil
Red Sails in the Sunset by Midnight Oil
Red Sails in the Sunset is an album by Midnight Oil, released in 1984. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 13 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “When The Generals Talk”, on 9 lists with a best position of #264.
Red Sails in the Sunset, Midnight Oil's fifth album, landed on Columbia in October 1984, and it was the one that finally took the Sydney band to number one at home. They made it in Tokyo with Nick Launay producing, and the sleeve says plenty before the needle drops: Japanese artist Tsunehisa Kimura's picture of Sydney Harbour after an imagined nuclear strike.
Peter Garrett is still the lightning rod out front, but this time drummer Rob Hirst steps up to sing lead on "When the Generals Talk" and "Kosciusko", the only Midnight Oil tracks ever to carry his voice up top. Around them, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey's guitars and Peter Gifford's bass churn with jittery political urgency. It even slipped onto the Billboard 200 in America, and a few months on the band took several of these songs to a Goat Island show on the harbour for Triple J's 10th birthday.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Red Sails in the Sunset on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | When The Generals Talk | 9 | #264 | – | 1989–2005 | |
| 2 | Kosciusko | 4 | #26 | – | 1985–2023 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.