[Closed] Best of 1974 1V: Paradise & Lunch v. Phaedra

[Listmeister]

Once and future Rock and Roll. Ry Cooder looked backward to Rock's roots; Tangerine Dream looked forward to where rock was going. Cooder was the master of slide guitar, Tangerine Dream specialized in electronic sounds.

Should be an interesting match up.

Paradise And Lunch by Ry Cooder, nominated by RepoMan

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Phaedra by Tangerine Dream, nominated by Saoirse.

[Skinny]

I never enjoy Tangerine Dream as much as I feel I should. They're exactly the type of thing I should love, given my tastes, but I always just think they're a little too proggy for me (I know that's ridiculous when I love Grosskopf or Göttsching or Cluster, but it is what it is), not to mention a little meandering. That said, I don't dislike them by any means, and 'Movements of a Visionary' might well be my favourite song of theirs. There are whole sections of Phaedra that don't move me at all, but that song is beautiful. This Ry Cooder album was a new discovery for me, and it was cool enough, but I'd still rather listen to the wanky meanderings of Tangerine Dream, if only for that occasionally glimmer of genius when it all comes together. Vote Phaedra.
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[meccalecca]

[Hayden]

Phaedra. I doubt I'll be voting for it next round though, it just scraped by this match.

Paradise & Lunch didn't hit the mark with me.
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[NickVolos]

"Well, there's lots of good women who wants to marry, and they want to live well at home.
But they're 'fraid they'll might get hold of a rowdy man, can't let other women alone.
And there's lots of good men wants to marry, and they wants to live well at home.
But every time they turn their back, there's another man there askin', "Darlin', is he gone?"

Ry Cooder by a mile. The music is warm and the song-writing down to earth. And when it comes to making that guitar sing, superb.
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"And can’t you see you’re in on it?
You were born though you need not
And is that not some cause
For worship, being born among these trees?"

[RepoMan]

Even though Phaedra’s killing it in the vote tally, it’s not getting nearly enough love here in the discussion section. I’m here to fix that. I love its spooky, futuristic ambience and how the tracks evocatively & naturally build. It’s almost impossible to listen to this and not visualize some dystopian future which is probably because so many science fiction soundtracks movies from the 70s & early 80s liberally lifted from it. Mysterious Semblance in particular gives me a sense of wonder at something larger than myself that the best science fiction movies can evoke. It’s influence even extends to 70s horror soundtrack genre which is one of my favorites. Probably most interesting though is it’s clearly the wellspring from which Aphex Twin returned again and again for all his bubbling synths & organic atmospherics. In fact, I would suggest that Tangerine Dream is more important than Kraftwerk for development of IDM but for some reason it doesn’t get nearly the love. Perhaps it’s because they eschewed song structure altogether. It’s definitely more emotive than Autobahn. Of course, many would argue it’s that very absence of emotion that makes Autobahn so seminal. That’d be a really interesting debate. But, I like emotion in my music - even it’s just the hairs on the back of my neck stiffening.

Yo, dumbass! It’s going against your nom.

Oh, right. Um… Let's see.. How about...

Paradise & Lunch is wonderfully laid back 70s country. It’s all american - a wonderful & effortless polyglot of country (Married Man’s A Fool), soul (Tattler), Caribbean (Mexican Divorce), and spirituals (Jesus on The Mainline) that never feels forced. But the sense of Country predominates though with its rambunctious fun & goofy charm. It evokes rural landscapes and background scenes that wouldn’t be out of place on True Detective. This is my kind of “country music” and surprisingly (at least it was for me), the bands that play the small honkey tonks in Fort Worth and Nashville are more likely to sound like this than anything resembling Zac Brown.

Phaedra

[Happymeal]

I actually enjoy Ry Cooder more than Tangerine Dream to some extent. Both have an album on my chart so Tangerine Dream has a better peak, but Ry Cooder has a more enjoyable overall career. I voted Ry Cooder in this case, but either album works well for me because they're both pretty relaxing stuff.

However, I'd highly recommend listening to the VM Bhatt collab he did called A Meeting by the River. It's a very beautiful album.

[meccalecca]

I really don't love either (not that either is bad), and there's a lot of superior records getting knocked out right now, so I'm voting for Neither to put my faith in Listmeister's crazy system.
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[sp4cetiger]

I don't want to take too much away from Cooder. His simplicity may not be a ruse, but it's deceptive all the same. That said, Phaedra's meanderings are a soulful diversion that I'm more likely to go back to.

[Listmeister]

Back to work, Cooder, lunch break is over.

Phaedra 8-3 (1-2)