From The Jungle Book and The Beach Boys to Joanna Newsom and Rufus Wainwright, Van Dyke Parks has long been the arranger and musician of choice for those seeking a maverick edge. His own releases are probably better in many respects, pulling in a wide sweep of American song and music to push out fresh, erudite, idiosyncratic albums. Songs Cycled, his first in 24 years, is one you don't meet every day, an album full of ecological concerns teased out against a backdrop of sounds influenced by jazz, Broadway musicals and Afro-Caribbean. It's an album of huge ambitions fully realised, where songs such as Dreaming of Paris and Wall Street take you back to Parks's work on his debut (Song Cycle) and remind you that he's grown bolder and brighter with age.
bananastan.com
Download: Dreaming Of Paris, Wall Street