Diesel Park West - Not Quite the American Dream (2022)

What a long, strange trip it’s been. Thirty-three years after their debut album Shakespeare Alabama introduced a sparkling new talent, Diesel Park West are back with a new album. Not Quite the American Dream, their first album since 2019’s Let It Melt and their 10th in all, finds the band in top form. It sends a clear message that Diesel Park West is not only alive and kicking but thriving artistically.
Back in the day the ever-burgeoning American fanbase took to the Diesel's brand of melodic jangle. When the Hoodoo Comes received plenty of airwaves time on American alternative radio stations coast to coast. Back home in Britain even the most popular national station, Radio 2, initially fell in love with them: “It threw a curveball and we weren’t expecting that,” chuckles Butler. “It was such fun to watch.” Shakespeare Alabama went on to sell about 150,000 copies driven largely by American record sales. But the band was never able to capitalize on those sales in the UK and as the major label system crumbled and grunge rolled into dominating America, Diesel Park West's commercial prospects diminished. They were bounced from Parlophone to Ryko and then into DIY land.
“Why are we still here?” questions John Butler, leader, songwriter and only member to have lasted the course since they formed in 1980 as The Filberts. “I’m still driven by the desire to write and you know what? It gets easier - the songs just keep falling out of me. And there’s more...We’ll turn up at rehearsal, wired, knackered and pissed off but when we start playing, within a few minutes it feels like we’re the greatest band in the world. That’s why we’re still here!”
By any reasonable yardstick, Not Quite the American Dream isn’t merely a great Diesel Park West album, it’s a great album. All twelve songs are solidly memorable with hooks abounding. Let It Melt – their first full length recording in seven years - was a reminder of Diesel Park West’s core strengths: classic songwriting in the rich vein of Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, Gene Clark and the Byrds but underpinned by a love for ferocious rock’n’roll and a knack for the socially conscious lyric. But Butler, already a master craftsman, ups his game a notch further on this latest offering.
The album was recorded at D-line Studios in the band's native Leicester during March-April and October-November of 2020 but the Covid pandemic brought restrictions and Butler was forced to emerge as the primary guitarist in a band that once featured no less than three (two of them left handed!). His knack for economical guitar melodies makes one harken back to the days of the late James Honeyman-Scott (Pretenders). Check Best of You and Secondary Modern Man for proof. Although the record was recorded in the UK it was finished in, of all places, Texas. That's where Salim Nourallah and John Dufilho (Deathray Davies/Apples in Stereo) completed tracking and mixing. So, why Texas? Butler says, "Well, why the fuck not? The whole world could do with being a bit "Texas " right now. Maybe that's why so many people are heading there now from the coasts." Nourallah adds, "Texas because I've been a fan since I saw them play the Marquee in New York City in 1992 and I wanted to do my best to help make a record that gets them some of the attention they so greatly deserve."
Despite the band's ties to the US, not only in the form of musical influences and a record label that has backed their creative resurgence, Not Quite the American Dream is quintessentially British with its Leicester street scene cover and socially conscious songs. Narratives found within its grooves ultimately question Butler's place not only in working-class culture but also as an unsung underdog in the pantheon of classic English writers. "The inspiration came via that first Covid year which ironically was a fantastic summer in England. I was playing guitar, putting stuff down, writing lyrics in the sunshine with a backdrop of unprecedented news..." Gone Gone Gone sums it all up succinctly: "The party's over, bread's gone stale/pockets are empty, even nature's failed/Lord give me protection from the dusty haze in the year without days..." Butler had the time and solitude to reflect and write and he put that time to good use. Secondary Modern Man is perhaps one of his most telling reflections and also the best Kinks song Ray Davies never wrote. Butler’s autobiographical take on the postwar British education system bobs along to an ebullient melody and rollicking drumbeat. Secondary modern school was where the eleven year olds with "no credible future" were sent. John Butler was one of those kids. What the system offered was: "Just enough to keep me at the coalface/just enough to tie me to the lathe /just enough to keep me fed and afraid/just enough to recognise my background, not quite the American dream..."
Don't Mention The War coins an expression which originates from English sensitivity toward Germany and puts it to a swinging T-Rex meets the Stones beat. "Its origins are actually semi-comedic, especially how "hurt feelings" is not a trait associated with our neighbors over the North Sea. However, as far as the song goes, I've used it as a metaphor for getting it together with an ex or an off-on fractious relationship."
The deceptively jaunty Surrender Shuffle takes up the autobiographical theme again with a few of Butler's best barbs thrown in for good measure. "It’s the green, not the principle, that swings it in the end." With so many years fighting to survive in the cut-throat business of music Butler's experiences run deep. "I couldn’t possibly have written this 25 years ago."
Both the wry Lunch On The Moon, with its punchy chorus and psychedelic ending, and Peace March, which harkens to some of the great Who singles, are the work of a man who will not surrender his creative individuality. But perhaps the most startling departure is the album closer, If I Had Yesterday. Unusually for Butler, it’s deeply personal, a love letter packed with wisdom to one of his grandchildren. "Even now I can hardly listen to it because it’s almost intruding on my own emotions." There’s more of course and as with most great albums, you’ll have a new favorite after every play. None of this should be a surprise: Diesel Park West Have been making timeless music for decades.
Martin Collomon, designer of the earliest DPW singles had this to say about the band's origins: "Balfe (head of Food records) needed a new name for this band and asked me for suggestions. I took out a sheet of A4 paper and drew three columns on it. In each column I put in words I liked. I told Balfe to pick one from each column. He did. The three words were Diesel, Park and West...in that order." Back in the beginning Butler used to say Diesel stood for power, Park for the band’s more bucolic aspects and West for their American inspirations. But in 2022 he says, “Those three words have been an intrinsic part of my own and other people's trip since 1987, they've become a life force all on their own. They no longer mean what they once did. In 2022, it’s a mantra. We haven’t got a huge back catalogue of hits, but we’re still here...perhaps because we haven’t had those hits!"
When asked, "What's next?" Butler retorts, "Who can tell but what I'd like to happen is that this unit, this band named after dirty fuel a place of relaxation and a point on the compass has recognition enough to display it's wares and performance abilities to those who think the vapid rock on display these days is as good as it gets. People NEED us...some just don't know they do yet and I aim to change that."