Tesla - Gold (2008) 2CD

Gold is a compilation album by the American hard rock band Tesla, released in 2008. It is a remastered 2 disc greatest hits album featuring songs from studio albums (through Into the Now), live albums, b-sides and unreleased material.

With only two other reviews for this set, even though its been out for about three months, I decided that everyone may want a little more information about what they're getting with this latest offering. For one thing, I really like these "Gold 2 CD compilations" by Universal music. If you are a casual fan of a band but like their music, you usually get a lot of bang for your buck. Also, being a modern release, the sound quality is usually much improved, but not always.

This two CD set contains 32 tracks by the Hard Rock band Tesla. It spans their entire career from the debut album in 1986 right up to last year's cover albums "Real to Reel" volume 1 & 2. It presents the songs in a basic chronological order instead of mixing them up like some Best of packages do. Kicking off with six tracks from the band's debut album Mechanical Resonance, and then five more from The Great Radio Controversy (1989), that's more than half of the first disc. Then we get the only previously unreleased track of the collection: Love In Vain (Robert Johnson) and a couple of "rarities", I Ain't Superstitious (Willie Dixon) which was the b-side of the Love Song single, and Rock the Nation (Ronnie Montrose) which was the b-side of Edison's Medicine. Next up are two tracks from the Five Man Acoustical Jam Live album (1990), the most popular being a remake of Signs, which was originally a hit for the Five Man Electrical Band in the 60`s. Disc one ends with two more b-side songs from the Psychotic Supper album. Children's Heritage was the flip side of Call It What You Want, and Cotton Fields was the b-side to What You Give.

Disc two begins with four tracks off the Psychotic Supper album (1991), then three off Bust a Nut (1994). Track eight is another hard to find song, Tesla's cover of Led Zeppelins "The Ocean", which was formerly only found on the Japanese Import version of Bust a Nut. Next up are a couple more unique tracks, Tesla's contribution to the soundtrack of the movie Last Action Hero, which, if you can track down, I highly recommend on it's own since it contains many "one-off" songs by major Hard Rock acts such as AC/DC, Megadeth, Alice In Chains, Queensryche, Def Leppard, and others. The next song, Steppin' Over, was previously only offered on the Geffen records Best of Tesla entitled Time's Makin' Changes (1995). Three more songs from 2004's Into The Now album round out disc two, leaving just one track left, another cover song from last year's Real to Reel series, Thank You by Led Zep.

Now to the packaging. It's the typical Gold 2 CD standard jewel case with the song list on the back against a white background, a decent 14-page booklet with a short history of the band, old photos, and extensive liner notes on all the included tracks. As far as sound quality goes this set is about average. The older songs sound a little "thin" compared to the newer ones off Into the Now, since most modern recordings have much more bass response than older (pre-1994) recordings. In an A-B comparison with the original release CD's my impressions are that the mid-range guitars and voices have been brought more "forward" in the mix. The low-end bass response is practically identical to the originals, which isn't bad considering the era they were recorded in. That's about it. If you even remotely like Tesla and want to check out more of their music this is a great place to start. If you an old time fan like myself and want to track down some bonus material without buying entire CD's for one track, this is a great deal. I'm giving this one 4-stars just because I am a little disappointed in the sound quality. It could be better. The RUSH Gold collection sounds fantastic. An improvement even over the 1994 remasters!

By Richard Thompson