My favorite Tesla album. It might not be song for song as great as the first two but it’s my favorite for many of the songs plus it came out when I was in high school so maybe for the memories from that part of my life. It was the third studio album from the band after the live acoustic detour the year before that surprisingly had a hit with the cover of “Signs”. Psychotic Supper was released in September 1991(two and half years after the previous studio album) and peaked at #13 on the Billboard chart eventually selling over a million copies in the US. There were five singles released including “Edison’s Medicine”, “Call it what you Want”, “What You Give”, “Song and Emotion”, and “Stir it Up”. All charted on the Mainstream Rock chart but only “What You Give” charted on the Billboard Hot 100 but only reaching #86. Honestly I only remember seeing videos for EM and WYG and have no memory of the other singles or if they had videos. I always wondered why CIWYW wasn’t pushed as a bigger single and felt it had a lot of potential to be a hit. With the musical climate changing so much by late 91/early 92 it’s not a big surprise that the album wasn’t as big as the previous two. The album starts out with “Change in the Weather” which gets things off to a rockin start and has more of a 70s vibe. “Edison’s Medicine” follows and is one of the better songs on the album and tells the story of what Thomas Edison did to Nikola Tesla. “Don’t De-Rock Me” is fast and furious and one of the heaviest Tesla songs. Kind of silly lyrically but it flat out rocks so I can overlook that. “Call It What You Want” is more on the melodic side and should have been a MTV and radio hit and while it was a single(I have no memory of this) it didn’t do very well. “Song & Emotion” is an epic track that is a tribute to Def Leopard’s Steve Clark who passed away January of 1991 and was a big influence on guitarists Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch. The songs starts slowly and builds and gets heavier as it goes on and is haunting and amazing for me. It was released in an edited form as a single but I don’t remember it receiving airplay where I lived. “Time” ends side one and is back to funkier 70s vibe similar to “Change in the Weather”. Side two opens with the short “Government Personnel” which leads into the epic “Freedom Slaves” which is one of my favs on the album. “Had Enough” is my favorite on the album and one of the more overlooked Tesla songs. “What You Give” is a great song and ballad but at seven minutes is very long and while it was a minimal hit in an edited form, it probably should have been edited down for the album too. “Stir it Up” is another ballad and ver my good as well. “Can’t Stop” and “Toke About It” end the album bringing back a faster pace. Both very good songs and a good way to end the album.
Tesla – Psychotic Supper (1991)
