Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle

So I've spent a lot of tonight and yesternight listening to this and Debarge's "In A Special Way" and yes I'm super close to losing my shit... in a good way. I may post this Debarge record because, for what it is, it is perfect. But for now, here's Parks' best. This is like the voice in your head. You know the one you hear when you want to shoplift Starburst and tape mirrors to your shoes.

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AMG: Van Dyke Parks moved on from the Beach Boys' abortive SMiLE sessions to record his own solo debut, Song Cycle, an audacious and occasionally brilliant attempt to mount a fully orchestrated, classically minded work within the context of contemporary pop. As indicated by its title, Song Cycle is a thematically coherent work, one which attempts to embrace the breadth of American popular music; bluegrass, ragtime, show tunes -- nothing escapes Parks' radar, and the sheer eclecticism and individualism of his work is remarkable. Opening with "Vine Street," authored by Randy Newman (another pop composer with serious classical aspirations), the album is both forward-thinking and backward-minded, a collision of bygone musical styles with the progressive sensibilities of the late '60s; while occasionally overambitious and at times insufferably coy, it's nevertheless a one-of-a-kind record, the product of true inspiration.


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