It is rare when I am inspired to buy an album after hearing a
\nsong or seeing a video one time. But back in 1986, this was the
\ncase the first time I ever heard the song “Modern Day Cowboy” by
\nTesla. Actually, I might have seen the video twice, then I never
\nsaw it again – but I knew that I wanted to hear what else this band
\nhad to offer. Within a matter of days and a week’s blown allowance,
\nI walked out of Sound Warehouse with my copy of their debut release<\/p>\n
Mechanical Resonance<\/i>.<\/p>\n
In recent years, I have forgotten about this album, possibly
\nbecause I’ve got so many other groups that I’m trying to fit into
\nmy daily listening schedule… and possibly because I found myself
\ndisappointed with their follow-up releases. Whatever the case, I
\nfinally dug out my battered copy of
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i> to see if the album still lived up to
\nthe hype I experienced as a 15-year-old.<\/p>\n
The first thing that strikes me about Tesla is that they sounded
\nvery much like a poor man’s Def Leppard. With vocalist Jeff Keith
\ndoing his best Joe Elliott impersonation, the two-guitar attack of
\nTommy Skeoch and Frank Hannon trading licks back and forth, and the
\nsolid rhythmic backbone of bassist Brian Wheat and drummer Troy
\nLuccketta, the band seemed to take the sound that other bands had
\nput forth and put their own stamp of approval on it.<\/p>\n
As for whether
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i> has held up to the passage of time…
\nwell, I don’t quite know. I know that the excitement I used to feel
\nwhen I listened to this album is nowhere near what it used to be,
\nbut the album does not disappoint me in the least.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with the easiest facets to examine. The two singles
\noff this album, “Modern Day Cowboy” and “Little Suzi,” are still
\ngreat tracks, though I’ve never been able to understand the one
\nchord in the bridge of “Modern Day Cowboy” that fails to resolve
\nitself. It sticks out like Pat Robertson at a Slayer concert.
\nStill, you have to admire the twin guitar work of Hannon and
\nSkeoch, especially on “Modern Day Cowboy”. (As for “Little Suzi,” I
\nwas going to say that this was the first solo I had ever learned
\nnote for note, but when I heard it again for this review, I
\nrealized I wasn’t even close in certain areas. Another dream
\nflushed down the crapper.)<\/p>\n
A few other tracks on
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i> achieved some attention in their time.
\n“Changes” seems to be one of the underground favorite tracks – then
\nagain, seeing the “best of” compilation was called
\nTime’s Makin’ Changes<\/i>, maybe it wasn’t so hidden as I’ve
\nthought. “Cumin’ Atcha Live” is a free-for-all party here, though
\nit was slowed down to a country boogie on
\nFive Man Acoustical Jam<\/i>… and I do prefer the original
\nversion.<\/p>\n
While some of the other tracks on
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i> are quite formulatic, they still have
\nsome level of spontaneity that makes them worthwhile even today.
\nThe album’s opener “EZ Come EZ Go” and “Rock Me To The Top” both
\nfall under this category – and while I was fully prepared to rip
\n“Rock Me To The Top” after hearing its Def Leppard-like opener for
\nthe first time in a good 10 years, I soon remembered how much I
\nliked this track. One just can’t help it.<\/p>\n
There are a few turkeys on this album, though. “We’re No Good
\nTogether” is a painful attempt at a ballad that switches gears in
\nan attempt to win both the rock and the ballad fans over in one
\nshot. “Love Me” and “Cover Queen” are fair to middling tracks, but
\nwhen compared to the killer tracks, they just don’t hold up.<\/p>\n
I guess this brings me full circle to my original thought: Is
\nMechanical Resonance<\/i> still worth checking out today? After
\nmuch thought (and the better part of a two-liter of Coca-Cola), the
\nanswer is “yes”. Tesla did build on the musical ideas that were
\nshaping hard rock in the mid-’80s, but they were able to throw
\nenough California sensibility (with even a slight touch of rural
\nflavor) to make the music on this disc something to cherish. It’s
\neven made me interested in going back to the other albums they
\nreleased… but we’ll save those thoughts for another review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6142],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36286","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tesla","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36286"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36286"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}