Diesel - Let It Fly (02/09/2013)
Many artists are the products of their collected experience. On Mark Lizotte AKA Diesel’s 13th studio album this is certainly true. The 6-time ARIA award winner, prolific songwriter and virtuoso guitarist has worn a number of different hats over his 25 plus years in the music business. Let It Fly is an all-encompassing reflection on this, as he bows to the past, revels in the present and makes the future look bright as he adds even more feathers to his cap.
Diesel’s first album of original material in five years sees the multi-instrumentalist once again tackling most of the music- i.e. playing and writing plus producing, engineering and mixing duties. He produces songs that touch on each of his different musical personalities with the blues-rock of old sitting alongside soulful pop, plus other new tracks that hint at a more folk or country style. The latter influence comes courtesy of his employing the banjo and mandolin along with some fiddle from Canadian musician and touring buddy, Tim Chaisson.
On the cover Diesel proudly holds up his Gretsch electric guitar along with pulling his best rock star pose and this is precisely how the album begins. Moneymaker uses dirty guitar riffs and a repetitive call to just surrender and shake your tail feather. At times it sounds a little clichéd because so many artists have implored us to dance (heck, Bill Haley & The Comets were singing about this in 1954 and they weren’t the first) but it is redeemed by being some retro-tinged fun.
By Your Throne could be by either Mumford & Sons or Gomez. The catchy banjo guitar playing could be by the former band but Diesel does some extra tinkering with the percussion, adding a funky element that’s similar to music by the latter group. It only amplifies Lizotte’s velvet croon and the finished product is like a good red wine, or a slab of adult contemporary music that brims with sophistication.
Things start off rather sad in Cupid’s Embrace where he sings that he’s been “Down for so long” and asks that we tell him what to do. But it does sound like an eventually happy ending because the music resembles a walk past the old folks on the bench on the verandah, as you venture off into a golden sunset.
Although Diesel received some outside help in the form of fiddle playing and backing vocals, Last Shower is the album’s first proper collaboration. The track was co-written with Chaisson at a Canadian music showcase and the youngster offers a restrained tone to match Diesel’s own. The song is a little like a gag, in that it sees an American and a Canadian singing about an Australian colloquialism and yet it all works rather well.
Diesel’s most sentimental collaboration comes when he enlists the help of his 18-year old daughter, Lila Gold. She lends her emotional vocals to If You Let Me Give and leaves the listener with a few touching moments. The Miles however, is the most sensitive tune and autobiographical one of the lot, as it chronicles the Lizotte family’s passage from the States to Australia when Diesel was just five.
Let It Fly could have wound up being rather strange and fragmented as Diesel tackles so many different musical styles. Yet in the hands of this master – a fluid player and picture of cool – the record is an excellent portrait of his observations and life experiences to date. It plays more like a diary than a record and ties up a number of loose ends, paving the way for the next exciting chapter in Diesel’s already-intriguing story.
Natalie Salvo
Diesel’s first album of original material in five years sees the multi-instrumentalist once again tackling most of the music- i.e. playing and writing plus producing, engineering and mixing duties. He produces songs that touch on each of his different musical personalities with the blues-rock of old sitting alongside soulful pop, plus other new tracks that hint at a more folk or country style. The latter influence comes courtesy of his employing the banjo and mandolin along with some fiddle from Canadian musician and touring buddy, Tim Chaisson.
On the cover Diesel proudly holds up his Gretsch electric guitar along with pulling his best rock star pose and this is precisely how the album begins. Moneymaker uses dirty guitar riffs and a repetitive call to just surrender and shake your tail feather. At times it sounds a little clichéd because so many artists have implored us to dance (heck, Bill Haley & The Comets were singing about this in 1954 and they weren’t the first) but it is redeemed by being some retro-tinged fun.
By Your Throne could be by either Mumford & Sons or Gomez. The catchy banjo guitar playing could be by the former band but Diesel does some extra tinkering with the percussion, adding a funky element that’s similar to music by the latter group. It only amplifies Lizotte’s velvet croon and the finished product is like a good red wine, or a slab of adult contemporary music that brims with sophistication.
Things start off rather sad in Cupid’s Embrace where he sings that he’s been “Down for so long” and asks that we tell him what to do. But it does sound like an eventually happy ending because the music resembles a walk past the old folks on the bench on the verandah, as you venture off into a golden sunset.
Although Diesel received some outside help in the form of fiddle playing and backing vocals, Last Shower is the album’s first proper collaboration. The track was co-written with Chaisson at a Canadian music showcase and the youngster offers a restrained tone to match Diesel’s own. The song is a little like a gag, in that it sees an American and a Canadian singing about an Australian colloquialism and yet it all works rather well.
Diesel’s most sentimental collaboration comes when he enlists the help of his 18-year old daughter, Lila Gold. She lends her emotional vocals to If You Let Me Give and leaves the listener with a few touching moments. The Miles however, is the most sensitive tune and autobiographical one of the lot, as it chronicles the Lizotte family’s passage from the States to Australia when Diesel was just five.
Let It Fly could have wound up being rather strange and fragmented as Diesel tackles so many different musical styles. Yet in the hands of this master – a fluid player and picture of cool – the record is an excellent portrait of his observations and life experiences to date. It plays more like a diary than a record and ties up a number of loose ends, paving the way for the next exciting chapter in Diesel’s already-intriguing story.
Natalie Salvo