Diesel - Bootleg Melancholy (2023) [Official Digital Download]

Diesel returns with new album Bootleg Melancholy!

All of the myriad talents of Diesel‘s musical abilities coalesce on Bootleg Melancholy, an unabashedly exuberant 14-track LP that is at once the most diverse and most cohesive album Diesel has recorded to date. Loaded with hooks, these songs greet with the warmth and familiarity of a good friend, songs about family, mortality, childhood, and dreams. Travelling across time, place, and memory, this is rousing yet reflective pop music that celebrates the joys of everyday life while braving the difficult stuff – the challenges we all eventually face – with insights and tenderness. Featuring the single Forever, the listener is going to take from Bootleg Melancholy what they best need, whether the pop rush of an infectious chorus, the reassurances of a heartening lyric sung with Diesel’s trademark soulfulness, or the satisfying interjection of some exhilarating solos on vintage guitars. And for Diesel, this album finally feels like a return to some form of normality after the previous few years and releases, as he explains, “After recording and releasing two albums in a pandemic, it feels great to be releasing this new album! I’m not sure what normal is, but it feels great to be still doing this with others around me. It’s always inspiring for me to see the excitement of people, especially as the recording process starts out as very insular, in this case a one-man journey. It’s always a challenge to put into words what something sounds like, but I feel like there are a lot of influences going on, probably more than any record I’ve made but somehow it feels the most cohesive at the same time.”

Spending the pandemic years revisiting artists like TLC, Elliot Smith, Leon Bridges, Khruangbin and Angel Olsen, Diesel also dove deep into guitar sounds and the first three Prince albums as he worked towards new material amidst a backdrop of extreme uncertainty. Recording, mixing and mastering his latest album entirely on his own, with drummer Lee Moloney appearing on some of the tracks and Bernie Bremond on saxophone for Never Giving Up, Bootleg Melancholy is as much an exercise in catharsis and joy as it is a snapshot of Diesel’s own personal journey; a reflection on places past tread during a time when travel seemed a distant memory, as Diesel reveals, “I would describe this album as almost a travel log recall of all the places I’ve been or lived in, I kind of had to as we weren’t going anywhere! There are also a lot of bright sounding songs with quite close to the bone lyrics, I like to have that juxtaposition.”

One of Australia’s greatest success stories, the American-born Diesel, aka Mark Lizotte, has spent three decades weaving an effortlessly magic musical touch into his rock and blues-fuelled sounds, both as part of the band Johnny Diesel & The Injectors and, more recently, as a solo artist. With multiple #1 ARIA charting albums under his belt, six ARIA award wins and millions of streams alongside a legion of fans, Diesel’s creative skillset also expands beyond his own projects, with the talented artist also renowned for his work as a producer and multi-instrumentalist.

Tracklist:
01. Forever
02. Backpedal
03. Circle Navigator
04. Lights Go Down
05. Like A Dove
06. Bootleg Melancholy
07. Vital Signs
08. Never Giving Up
09. Corduroy and Crumbs
10. Pasadena
11. Starts With One
12. Tambourine Girl
13. Babies
14. Remember My Love


Thanks to the Original customer!