“Van Dyke Parks' first new material in almost 20 years shows his kooky-genius orchestral Americana (see his work on Brian Wilson's Smile and Joanna Newsom's Ys) to be as inspired as ever. A companion to his 1968 head-turner, Song Cycle, conceived as a set of seven-inch singles, the LP shows his ear remains a melting pot: Opening with a Malagasy folk song, he sings of France with musette bagpipes ("”
