Diane Gentile and the Gentle Men kick off Gentile’s third solo release The Bad and the Beautiful with “Lace Up Your Sneakers”. The obvious buoyancy of the track pulled me in from the start as she begins the song with an up-tempo musical fanfare that lifts you up for what follows. The steadily percolating pace of the song is an excellent match for Gentile’s voice, a deceptively strong instrument, and frames her lyrical content quite well.
Her lyrics are full of specific details. It helps ground listeners such as me in a quantifiable reality while always understanding we see this particular slice of life through Gentile’s eyes alone. It is nonetheless resonant. Nearly every adult has experienced these emotions and Gentile conveys it in conversational language that’s accessible to listeners. I’m a particular fan, as well, of the blistering guitar solo during the song’s second half.
I’m dazzled by the assorted twists she uncovers during the song “Dance ‘til Dawn”. It has a decidedly singer/songwriter feel, there’s no questioning that, but there’s likewise a considerable amount of musical muscle lifting this song into life. There’s a whiff of fatalism, classic rock and roll style, wafting through the song’s lyrics, but it never lapses into trite cliché. “Walk with Me” is a track deserving the widest possible audience. The album’s sole duet pairs Gentile with gifted songwriter and vocalist Alejandro Escovedo for an upbeat rocker. It adopts a steady charge from the outset with flourishes built around the song’s chorus and their voices merge during the refrain with emphatic conviction.
Tasteful snippets of musical mood bookend the fifth track “Shimmy” while the main body of the track embraces all-out rock. It’s one of a few occasions during the collection when Gentile & the Gentle Men unleash the full breadth of their rock and roll chops, but it’s never mindless thrashing when they do. This track, among others, proves that she has the necessary vocal firepower for any rock and roll cut. The seventh song, “Sugarcane”, takes another detour on an album full of such moments. Gentile veers into garish blues with this track and the instruments in play generate a sweltering climate she and her bandmates sustain for the song’s entirety. Her vocal matches the song quite nicely.
“Be There” is another bluesy foray. We’re dropped down knee-deep in the Delta with this one, however, as it foregoes electric instrumentation in favor of a rough and ready acoustic blues. I don’t find it to be much of a stretch hearing her in this sort of musical environment and I doubt that many, if any, listeners will disagree. The finale “Kiss the Sky” returns us to more familiar sonic territory for the album’s final curtain. It’s a swelling ballad, rising from a relatively spartan beginning to a dramatic close, and piano remains the musical constant throughout. It’s reflective of her songwriting talents that she manages straddling stateliness without ever slipping into overblown pretension. It’s a memorable final salvo for Diane Gentile’s The Bad and the Beautiful that further secures its claim to being one of 2023’s best releases.
Jodi Marxbury