10. Tesla Mechanical Resonance 1986 (Geffen)
Hard Rock
A powerful resonation of roots-laced hard rock.
The Lowdown
Sacramento band Tesla originally got their name from the scientist that pioneered electricity and started out as a band called Kidd with less than a convincing sound. They then called themselves Tesla and started getting their hard rock roots orientated sound together and then took an even bigger step in landing a plum record contract with Geffen Records. Geffen for their part had emerged in the 1980s as one of the big commercial labels to be on, especially for any band intent on cracking the US market and artists like Sammy Hagar, Whitesnake and Asia had been three of its biggest names throughout the 1980s are far as their heavier entourage went. Geffen were very much an arena rock label and the huge Tesla sound made them the perfect Geffen product and with hard rock now ready to make a return Tesla it seemed had emerged at just the right time. Success though wasn’t immediate for Tesla but album sales gradually pushed the album into the Billboard top 40 taking the album platinum and a lot of those sales were probably due to the band being lumped in with the glam metal crowd.
Mechanical Resonancethough is high on this year’s list, quite simply because it’s an album of two faces with the best saved till last and with 53 mins of running time to play with there is plenty on offer. Side one of the album is its commercial face, where the radio-friendly tracks range from your average clichéd/anthemy offerings like "EZ Come EZ Go" "Cumin' Atcha Live" and "Rock Me to the Top" the best of these and are all nicely designed to appeal to the glam metal brigade. I find the bluesy style ballad "We're No Good Together" tiresome and too long but I know fans of the album dig the song. In amongst these are some pretty good tracks which do make side one a worthy listen and these include songs like "Gettin' Better" which after a slow start turns into a grittier affair and then there is the steady rock of "2 Late 4 Love" and across a lot of these tracks, you can easily hear the band's 70's rock influences. Now onto side two and the reason why this album is on this year’s list and also ranked so highly. We kick off with "Modern Day Cowboy" a classic hard rock track with a glorious riff and with just the right kind of volume build to fill out its 5 minutes. The colder sounding "Changes" with its piano investment is another glorious track and my personal favourite from the album with the album closer and demonstrates the superb writing range of the band. In fact Yes on their
90125 album put out a great song also called "Changes" as well... so maybe something in the name there. There is a good cover of "Little Suzie" which turned out to be the band's highest charting single. The groovy sounding "Cover Queen" and the gloomy sounding yet brilliant "Before My Eyes" finishes off the album. All credit for this album goes to vocalist Jeff Keith who had the vocal chops to pull the whole thing off and lead guitarist Frank Hannon a great guitarist whose playing style was clearly embedded in the style of all those great 1970s rock guitarists. Overall
Mechanical Resonance is the kind of album that a resurgent Aeromsith should’ve put out at this time with its combination of obvious commercial material and pure album tracks of quality, something that any great AOR band would already know plenty about and this was certainly a template that Tesla adopted on their debut set. Tesla not only laid down a genre legacy on
Mechanical Resonance in terms of their musical approach, but their denim wearing image, lack of make-up and gimmicks steered them away from the glam metal crowd. They also didn’t have the sheen of the Van Haga or an AOR band and preferred to simly blast out a much rawer sound. They wrote better songs than bands like Bon Jovi and Whitesnake, and their hard rock sound was distinctly rooted in the 1970s and not in modern heavy metal. Their sound though was contemporary enough to be arena rock sounding and when the album came out it was a great Geffen product. Further fuel to the hard rock fire would be added the following year when bands like Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and The Cult made an even bigger genre profile splash than Tesla with the albums
Permanent Vacation,
Appetite for Destruction and
Electric. finally
Mechanical Resonance is laced with certain tracks that were built to last and songs that serve as a perfect example of hard rock at its very best...... so step forward "Changes" and "Before My Eyes".
Jeff Keith- Vocals
Frank Hannon- Guitar/Keyboards
Tommy Skeoch- Guitar
Brian Wheat- Bass
Troy Luccketa- Drums
Production- Steve Thompson