Tesla - Mechanical Resonance (1986)

Posted By: hill0

Date: April 10, 2015

Mechanical Resonance is the debut album by the American hard rock band Tesla, released in 1986. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA on October 5, 1989.

Review by Eduardo Rivadavia
Sacramento's oddly named Tesla (a moniker inspired by renegade inventor and pioneering electrical engineer Nikola Tesla) took the side door to '80s hard rock success, sneaking up on the charts and into the bedrooms of none-the-wiser glam metal consumers with their rock-solid debut, Mechanical Resonance – itself titled after one of Nikola's better-known experiments, and a fascinating case study in musical compromise if ever there were one. Essentially, the album was partitioned into two quite different halves, with side one predominantly tailored to seduce the aforementioned music fans via radio-friendly templates and therefore packed with mostly throwaway, cliché-ridden arena anthems like "EZ Come, EZ Go," "Cumin' Atcha Live," and the gloriously dumb "Rock Me to the Top," boasting few surprises but plenty of testosterone. Yes, a few hints of Tesla's substantial songwriting intelligence can be glimpsed within the gritty strut of "Gettin' Better" and the bluesy balladry of "We're No Good Together," but most of the band's more mature and accomplished songs are saved for Mechanical Resonance's revelatory side two. Here, lead guitarist Frank Hannon really takes charge and establishes himself as the band's de facto difference maker, beginning with an epic of Led Zeppelin-like class and complexity in "Modern Day Cowboy," which was built upon a lopsided riff so irresistible that not even its finger-twisting complexity could keep it from becoming one of their most popular standards. This was followed by another pair of eventual fan favorites doubling as good examples of Tesla's creative range, since the wintry drama of the piano-laced "Changes" stood in stark contrast to the upbeat summer vibe of "Little Suzi." And finally, as though the aforementioned detours didn't proffer enough food for thought, Tesla even flirted with art rock on the odd rhythms and clever economy of "Cover Queen," before concluding with the desolate sobriety of closer "Before My Eyes." Given all these qualities and contrasts, it's no wonder that Mechanical Resonance stood out as one of the 1980s' most eclectic hard rock albums, and provided a formidable introduction to one of the era's most underrated American bands.

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Tracklist:

01. EZ Come EZ Go (3:33)
02. Cumin 'Atcha Live (4:27)
03. Gettin 'Better (3:22)
04. 2 Late 4 Love (3:51)
05. Rock Me To The Top (3:41)
06. We're No Good Together (5:19)
07. Modern Day Cowboy (5:19)
08. Changes (5:03)
09. Little Suzi (4:58)
10. Love Me (4:16)
11. Cover Queen (4:32)
12. Before My Eyes (5:31

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 10. September 2008, 11:46

Tesla / Mechanical Resonance

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7173A Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
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Gap handling : Appended to previous track

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Selected bitrate : 320 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
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Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:33.15 | 0 | 15989
2 | 3:33.15 | 4:27.32 | 15990 | 36046
3 | 8:00.47 | 3:22.18 | 36047 | 51214
4 | 11:22.65 | 3:50.37 | 51215 | 68501
5 | 15:13.27 | 3:40.38 | 68502 | 85039
6 | 18:53.65 | 5:18.65 | 85040 | 108954
7 | 24:12.55 | 5:18.42 | 108955 | 132846
8 | 29:31.22 | 5:02.58 | 132847 | 155554
9 | 34:34.05 | 4:58.15 | 155555 | 177919
10 | 39:32.20 | 4:16.12 | 177920 | 197131
11 | 43:48.32 | 4:32.10 | 197132 | 217541
12 | 48:20.42 | 5:31.28 | 217542 | 242394

Track 1

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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [D76F6767]
Copy OK

Track 2

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Track 3

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Track 4

Filename C:\Tesla - Mechanical Resonance\04. 2 Late 4 Love.wav

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Track 5

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Track 6

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Track 7

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Track 8

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Track 9

Filename C:\Tesla - Mechanical Resonance\09. Little Suzi.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [1E2B6FE0]
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename C:\Tesla - Mechanical Resonance\10. Love Me.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [25AE0F31]
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename C:\Tesla - Mechanical Resonance\11. Cover Queen.wav

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Copy OK

Track 12

Filename C:\Tesla - Mechanical Resonance\12. Before My Eyes.wav

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Copy CRC 115F79C4
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [516BD00F]
Copy OK

All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

Personnel

Jeff Keith - lead vocal
Frank Hannon - acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals
Tommy Skeoch - acoustic & electric guitars, backing vocals
Brian Wheat - bass, backing vocals
Troy Luccketta - drums, percussion

All thanks to amowgli