At last, a
Tesla album that combines the elemental structure of '
Mechanical Resonance' with the power and gravitas of
'Psychotic Supper'.
This is a band absolutely at the top of their game, writing fabulous, hard hitting melodic rock songs, riffed up and ready to roll.
Terry Thomas's production is earthy and densely constructed, but never cluttered. Band and producer keep it deceptively simple, with a barrage of bass heavy guitars and pounding percussion fuelling almost every track, with only a sparingly used, softly spoken keyboard riff emerging from the background from time to time.
Sturdily melodic, hardbodied rock songs come at you relentlessly. You wait for the quality control to falter, for a filler to appear, but no, the band stride through
'Forevermore', fleet of foot and steady of step, without a single false move or a solitary stumble. Impressive.
The steamrollering '
I Wanna Live' and
'One Day At A Time' deliver towering hooks on the back of strident, take-no-prisoners rock'n'riffage. This is
Tesla in full flight, where every track trails tuneful turbulence in its wake.
'So What' utilises the relatively contemporary slow/quick technique to enormous effect, building a heavy duty riff into a skyscraping hook and a clanging, memorably melodic axe solo.
The marginally more thoughtful
'Just In Case' is similar in style, rising through the gears from slow and smoky to a convincingly powerful and warmly confessional chorus.
Like many, many classic rock bands,
Tesla have an abiding liking for The Beatles.
On
'Forevermore' this comes through on
'Falling Apart'. You can hear their trademark harmonium duetting with an acoustic guitar, shadowing the beat, before the song accelerates into a heartstopping chorus with a beautifully descending, melancholy melody line.
'The First Time' explores no new lyrical territory but comes crashing into life with an explosive chorus.
'Pvt Ledbetter' is a clever, simple but affecting anti-war song. And like that and like that.
So there it is. Twelve magnificent tracks. Fifty magic minutes.
Ten minutes short of their finest hour. But who's counting.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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