| Essential Oils | |
| Type: | Greatest hits |
| Artist: | Midnight Oil |
| Cover: | Essential Oils cover art.png |
| Released: | 2 November 2012 |
| Recorded: | 1977–2001 |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 151:10 |
| Label: | Sony Music Entertainment |
| Prev Title: | Flat Chat |
| Prev Year: | 2006 |
| Next Title: | Armistice Day |
| Next Year: | 2018 |
Essential Oils is a two-disc compilation album by Australian rock band Midnight Oil released in November 2012.[1] [2]
At the time of its release, the compilation covered Midnight Oil's entire career, starting with the group's 1978 self-titled album and including, in chronological order, tracks from all their studio albums and EPs up to and including the album Capricornia (2002). Essential Oils was released during the period in which Midnight Oil had broken up in the wake of lead singer Peter Garrett focusing on his political career. The band reformed in 2016, embarked on concert tours (2017, 2019, 2022) and released two further studio albums, The Makarrata Project (2020) and Resist (2022).
Given its comprehensive 36-song track list, the two-disc Essential Oils effectively supplants Midnight Oil's previous greatest-hits compilation, the one-disc, 18-track album 20,000 Watt R.S.L. (1997). There is only one track in 20,000 Watt R.S.L. ("What Goes On") that is not included in Essential Oils.
Essential Oils contains twelve songs that were included in Flat Chat (2006), an 18-track compilation of Midnight Oil's heavier rock songs. (The Flat Chat tracks that do not appear on Essential Oils are "Section 5 (Bus to Bondi)", "Tell Me the Truth", "Stand in Line", "Pictures", "Written in the Heart" and "Mosquito March".)
Essential Oils contains liner notes by American music journalist David Fricke. The album charted at number 7 on the ARIA Charts and on the Official New Zealand Music Chart.