The Great Radio Controversy

The Great Radio Controversy is the second album on which TESLA pushed out its blues-inflected hard-rock feel together with stronger melody. The two guitars sound thick yet not over-processed, and Jeff Keith’s singing carries the songs’ emotion straight. The album title derives from the controversy over the invention of radio between Nikola Tesla and Marconi, showing the band’s respect for the inventor Tesla. The lyrical ballad “Love Song,” with its open melody and beautiful guitar work, became one of the band’s biggest hits and made its name widely known. Meanwhile, the rawness of “Hang Tough” and “Heaven's Trail (No Way Out),” the melancholy of “The Way It Is” and the catchiness of “Lady Luck” concisely show the band’s range. In the midst of an era when flashy production was mainstream, wielding the reality of the playing and a plain heat as its weapons, it is a full record that lifted TESLA to stardom at a stroke.