Tesla - Bust A Nut

In 1994, Tesla, a Sacramento-based band that started in the 1980's, released their fourth studio album, fifth in all, onto what was by then a music world that was impervious to the type of rock Tesla made: melodic with a hard edge. The world didn't care so much anymore. Well...

THEIR LOSS.

Personally speaking, Bust A Nut, by Tesla, is the best album that came out in 1994, bar none. This is definitely one of the best, most complete albums that came out in the mid-90's. In fact, if I sound downright CRAZY when I refer to this album, it's because it's so full of good stuff that I sometimes can't believe it when I listen to it! Most bands would give anything to have, in their whole professional career, so many amazing songs as Tesla released in ONE album, Bust A Nut.

So, getting down to the songs, Bust A Nut has fourteen songs, out of which you can say all are great in their own way, although there are definite standouts. Shine Away is a song that has an eerie feeling, starting out with a clean electric guitar while singer Jeff Keith sings "All is well, as it could ever be...". After a couple of minutes, the chorus kicks you in the groin so hard, yet so good, that you can't help but feel the song is, in a good way, endless.

One of Tesla's strongest points has always been its twin guitars, masterfully played by guitarists Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch. The opening track, The Gate/Invited is a song that showcases exactly what these two could do together. No, don't expect Van Halen-esque tapping, but do expect an interplay in guitars that actually talks to you. The rest of the band, drummer Troy Luccketta and bassist Brian Wheat, do what a rhythm section is supposed to do in a rock band: they hold the bottom end nice and tight with just enough adornment for you to know that they care about the parts they play.

Try So Hard is a song that, even though it has a hard bottom end, has a sweet heart, not to mention a long, amazing, soulful guitar solo that is actually the outro to the song. Need Your Lovin' is a song that I can only praise highly but sparingly, lest I fall into unreal rhetoric here. The last song of the album is a cover of Games People Play, by Joe South, which they do beautifully. The second to last song, Wonderful World, is probably the best and most complete of the whole bunch. Lyrically and musically, it's a song that interweaves the positive point of view of a young boy about the world with the harsh reality that the world sometimes has in store for us.

Lastly, a note on the song Alot To Lose (no mispelling). It's a ballad. It's nice, it's sad and it belongs in any self-respecting iTunes playlist of rock ballads. "I got a lot of love for you. I guess that means I got a lot to lose." That pretty much says it all.

Reasons to own this album:

1) The songs. What better compliment to pay an album?
2) The guitars. You always find something new in the arrangements when you listen to them.
3) Jeff Keith's great, raspy voice that pulls you out of your seat and keeps you paying attention all the way through.

Bust A Nut should have been a big seller. It should've been huge. Music-wise, it is.

Next up: A small article on a big part of rock.