***1/2 Midnight Oil

20,000 WATT R.S.L.

(Columbia)

Midnight Oil have worn a few hats over the years -- Aussie surfer band, heirs to the Clash throne, new-wave throwbacks, last of the political bands. But in the end it's songcraft that matters, and songcraft is why they can now release a thoroughly satisfying, 76-minute compilation with 18 tracks on it. Songcraft is also why Midnight Oil can claim so many resonant numbers about issues that listeners outside of Australia will know or care little about. "Trugnanini" (1993) has lyrics that refer to a 19th-century aboriginal-rights dispute, and a chorus that is blatantly lifted from "Bad Moon Rising." But that chorus is so gorgeously arranged, with its steady build-up and harp strumming on the downbeat, that it transcends context.

Although 20,000 Watt R.S.L. presents the songs out of chronological order, the disc shows Midnight Oil moving from the punkish sound of old to the textured pop of recent years, when their neo-hippie idealism threatened to grate. The band's US breakthrough, "Power & the Passion," still stands as an inspiring anthem, even if the central lyric, "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees," sounds mighty naive after all these years. Their successful stab at an American radio sound, "Beds Are Burning," with that repetitive chorus and those dated drum machines, holds up least well. The track standing proudest is 1985's "Best of Both Worlds," with those screams of "The one it could have been!" remaining a chilling and cathartic punk-rock moment. At least the two new songs (after only one from last year's lackluster Breathe) show the return of that intensity. "White Skin Black Heart" uses some of the same techno-tricks that U2 adopted on Pop, and "What's Going On" throws distortion on Garrett's voice and sports a churning groove recalling the Hüsker Dü song of the same name.

-- Brett Milano