It sucks going first. The contest has just gotten started, and all of a sudden, I was already facing sudden death. I didn't expect to have my knight have to go into battle quite so early. So because of that, and because I had a lot of work this week (and a lot of music that I bought last week to work my way through), I didn't even start my listening until two days after we got underway. As a result, I watched in horror as my recommendation, a classic album of the 1970s that was only even eligible for the contest because for some unknown reason, so few people on the site had noticed and rated it, fell behind early.
By the time I had given each of the two contestants my requisite three listens, though, it had caught up and pulled slightly ahead. I cast my vote on Sunday night, with the following (longwinded) explanation:
So, it won't surprise anyone that my vote goes to Procol Harum.
It's simply a matter of the Procol LP having a whole lot more of what I like in prog music than the Tantra LP.
Even in prog, hooks are important to me, which is why some of my favorite prog bands are bands like Procol, Jethro Tull, and even Yes. This album has hooks galore, even in an extended piece like "In Held 'Twas in I" (which is really mostly a suite of interconnected little songs).
The Tantra album, on the other hand, has some hooks, but also several extended parts that feel to me like good musicians just noodling around. I can't tell you on which tracks, because I listened to both LPs on YouTube, but somewhere around the 20-minute mark, the Tantra album breaks into an extended drum mostly-solo (with some music box effects along for the ride), and it starts to lose me there.
Also, even in prog, vocals are important to me. Not everyone loves Gary Brooker's voice, but I always have. The majority of the Tantra album doesn't have vocals (always a minus for me), and in the parts where it does, I don't really like Michael Cardoso as a vocalist much at all. This is a case where I think he'd have been better off bringing a vocal specialist into his band than trying to sing himself, which apparently he did on some of his more recent projects.
Where Tantra stands out is in their musicianship. I can definitely hear the Steve Howe influences on Cardoso's guitar playing. I liked the keyboards a lot too.
It's not really fair, of course, to compare them for lyrical content. I've always liked Procol's epic fantasies, as penned by Keith Reid. But I don't understand Portuguese, so it takes away a possible realm of enjoyment for me here (for Tantra). The album art is pretty cool -- it speaks of fantastic realms, so I'm sorry I can't understand the lyrics.
In any event, the Tantra album was always going to have an uphill battle for me here vs. Procol Harum. Procol has long been one of my favorite bands, and "In Held 'Twas in I" (along with King Crimson's first album) were really the first pieces of prog I ever heard, the ones that drew me into the genre in the first place.
So again, I vote for Procol.
By the next morning, Procol held a slim 2 vote lead, while one of the other contestants who loved the Tantra album tried desperately to round up a few votes for his pick (and I threatened to kill him and throw his body into a swamp. I like to think I'm a reasonably good sport, but I desperately wanted to last at least one more round.)
Here's what I've noticed about these tournaments -- we each define "progressive rock" slightly differently. Whereas I'm still looking for hooks, great vocals and melodic sounds, some of the others are looking for long (and sometimes somewhat atonal) instrumental passages. In the end, I've never seen an album I've hated win the whole thing, but usually my top one or two choices don't win it either. (And as for my actual recommendations, forget it! I think I've only ever made it out of the first round one time.)
Anyway, in the end, I was grateful to hang on for a tough win.
Final Result: Procol Harum 10 votes, Tantra 8 votes.
Now I can just relax and enjoy the music for the next nine matchups.
