Diesel Park Alabama
Title Shakespeare
Released 8th August 2005
Label EMI
Website dieselparkwest.com
The record is utterly stunning. What especially stands out with DPW is the magnificent duo of John Butler (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Rick Willson (lead guitar). John's powerful and sometimes defiant lyrics are matched perfectly by his soaring and powerful voice, as Rick backs everything up with what's likely to be the best psychedelic riffs you're ever likely to hear. Together with a rhythm section comprising Geoff Beaven giving off some prominent and funky bass lines and David "Moth" Smith frenetically drumming away, you start to wonder why more people didn't find this band and actually allow them their big break they so definitely deserved.
The opening track, 'Like Princes Do', speaks of a very obvious disillusionment with the right-wing, corporate and greed powered mentality of Thatcher's era, whilst organised religion suffers a kick in the shins in the track All the Myths of Sunday. It's not an overly angry album, by any means, but nor is it wishy washy and meaningless, either. Most of the the rest of the album is inhabited with more personal songs - some of which are about love - but they stay free of cliché. A House Divided refers to the falling apart of a long term relationship, yet you feel no hardship listening to it as your foot taps along appreciatively. Here I Stand is another stand out track for me, a slow moving number with definite autobiographical meanings in John's lyrics, as if defending his opinions aired over the previous tracks on the album and going someway to describing what drives his music and how he airs his opinions through that: "I got a burning heart that keeps me moving, keeps me looking for life... And all my heroes are either gone, dead or forgotten... here I stand, here I am, right or wrong"
So, why did EMI decide after all this time to re-master and reissue Shakey? Well, DPW have maintained a constant but steady presence in the industry with 4 independent albums released in the years following their split from Food/EMI, and their small but stalwart group of fans have made sure that such releases never go unsold. The band (and later on John Butler's solo albums) have always enjoyed critical acclaim and there was no doubt this release would bring with it favorable reviews, hopefully bringing the band into the focus of the public, and maybe, just maybe, allow the lads to claim their pound of flesh, at last. I'll let you guess whether or not this has happened or not.
It's certainly nice little re-package of what could well be the most influential, yet criminally overlooked, records of the last 20 years. I heartily recommend this album to every last one of you - be it the remastered or original edition. Just buy it.
Diesel Park West - 'Shakespeare
by Janne
Oinonen
If
there is one reason why lost
masterworks from the 1980’s are unlikely to ever have music buffs in a
frenzy
similar to that caused by contact with their counterparts from the
earlier
decades, it’s laid out in all its fearsome din in the opening bars of
this re-release
of Diesel Park West’s 1989 debut. The slick production values of the
golden era
of greed, all unappealingly sharp, bright metallic echo and drum sounds
that
resemble someone keeping the beat on wet cardboard boxes, have, to put
it
mildly, not aged quite as well as their more organic predecessors.
Venture past the oddly unnatural sound that evokes disturbing images of
mullets, shoulder-pads and yuppies yelling down mobiles phones the size
of a
hefty brick, however, and there’s an awful lot to admire here. The
first six
songs on the album are so strong in their rare combination of
substantial
compositional complexity, unashamedly lowbrow catchiness and muscular
classic
rock thrills it’s quite puzzling that the band never made it beyond the
commercially measly status as the critics’ darling. Of the highlights,
‘Out of
Nowhere’ has a chorus huge enough to fill even the most gigantic of
enormodomes
while ‘When The Hoodoo Comes’ is infectiousness distilled to four
flawless
minutes. Pick of the bunch, however, is ‘The Waking Hour’, an
embarrassment of
hooks that travels from the thumbing staccato verses to yet another
rousing
chorus before taking a surprising but highly effective de-tour to a
dramatic,
string-soaked breakdown. ‘Jackie’s Still Sad’ and ‘Here I Stand’ ease
off the
anthemic qualities in abundance elsewhere with potent results, while a
handful
of the eight bonus tracks offer insight to the band’s sturdy sound and
the
excellent interplay of guitarists Rick Willson and Rich Barton sans the
distractions of excess studio gloss.
Diesel Park
West -
Shakespeare
Re-released a week prior to this
year's
Summer Sundae festival in
The band are John Butler (vocs.), Geoff Beavan (bassist), Dave Anderson
(drums)
and guitarists Rick Willson and Rich Barton making this outfit one
powerpacked
quintet.
In fact reaquainting myself with this album, as I have done with this
re-release, I'm quite amazed at how fresh this album still sounds. Not
at all
stale and unlisenable as might've so easily been the case with an album
that
was 16 years old. This album still deserves its place in mine or any
record
collection and with the additional tracks this is just a bonus
(although 2 of
these were available with the original CD release). Hey though, I'm not
complaining. 8/10
Diesel ParkWest - "Shakespeare
playing time 70 mins | label EMI |
released on
Reviewed by Wolfgang Steuer | overall
marks - 4 stars
All the songs were written for big stadium filling gigs and hint on
what could
have been had the buying public also taken them to their heart 15 years
ago. So
here is one of those cult classics that hopefully find a better ear
with
Imagine my amazement when I noticed that the 10 track original album
was
extended by a further 8 bonus tracks of mostly previously unreleased
material
together with the original single mix of When The Hoodoo Comes
and a Bob
Clearmountain mix of All The Myths On Sunday. Digging out
my Diesel
Park West singles I noticed that there are more tracks on there
that could
have formed another disc of bonus tracks (May I suggest to the lovely
people of
EMI to consider an a-side / b-sides collection to follow this
re-release
featuring even such cover songs as Memo From Turner).
I was even happier still with the news that the remaining four original
members
of Diesel Park West (John Butler, Geoff Beavan, Dave
Anderson, Rick
Willson) are planning some one-off shows to mark this special
edition
release. Look out for these gigs, as this material, as brilliant as it
already
is on CD, comes to live on stage!
Let’s hope that the other two albums Flipped and Decency
will get
a similar treatment soon, and Diesel Park West get more than a
cult
following in these exiting times for real Britpop.
Diesel Park West - Shakespeare
Review by Alan Sargeant 22/08/2005
Hailed by critics back in 1987,
Shakespeare
Their sound backs the adage "what goes
around comes around." DPW
were playing indie pop with a (slight) garage twist long before it was
back in
fashion.
This re-issue has been remastered,
allegedly to make it sound more like the
band intended. You also get the obligatory extras, in this case eight
songs,
some unreleased, some remixed.
The band's threatening some reunion gigs
and it would be nice to think
there's still a hardcore fanbase out there.
i-Pod: All the Myths on Sunday
Label: EMI
Rating: 3/5
Diesel Park Alabama
by Charles
Hutchinson
However, Diesel
Park West
should have been contenders. In 1988, they burst out of the traps, a
psychedelic Midlands mash of The Byrds and The Small Faces, singing of
"knocking on the door of opportunity" on Like Princes Do and
"the world swings my way" on fellow 1989 single All The Myths On
Sunday.
Then
along comes this re-mastered edition with eight bonus tracks, and the
Diesel is
alight once more. Pump it up.
Updated:
Diesel Park West; Shakespeare
On its original release in 1989, Shakespeare
This "special edition"
supposedly sounds closer to how the group intended it, though, frankly,
it's
hard to find much wrong with the original. Indeed it's difficult to
think of
any other album that opened with a sequence of songs as powerful as
Like
Princes Do, All the Myths on Sunday and Bell of Hope. 5/5 stars. Adam
Sweeting.
Diesel Park West
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