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- #1
- Posted: 03/28/2014 19:07
- Post subject: User Pick of the Day (#12): Song Cycle by Van Dyke Parks
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Song Cycle by Van Dyke Parks
Chart: Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by satiemaniac
Rank on User's Chart: 1
Year: 1968
Rank on BEA Overall: 1,487
Average Rating: 74/100
Summary Info: The debut album from Van Dyke Parks, an American musician otherwise known for his heavy involvement in Brian Wilson's Smile project. Prior to the release of this album, Parks had worked as a session pianist for a number of high-profile acts and was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with contemporary pop's reliance on traditions connected to the British invasion. This album was his attempt to provide a uniquely American pop experience, including elements of bluegrass, ragtime, and folk, among others.
| satiemaniac wrote: | | Van Dyke Parks's thorough deconstruction and analysis of pop music is first and foremost an intellectual exercise, taking the small flourishes, crescendos, and instrumental tidbits that tie us to our favorite pop songs and making dynamic, soundtrack-resembling sound collages out of them. Parks, though, has the advantage over a variety of more academic composers or cleverer later musicians of having been himself intimately involved in some of the best pop music ever made. Because of that, fleeting moments of sereneness, immense beauty, and the giddy joy that only a certain kind of baroque pop can give on a dewy spring morning are intact and a mile-a-minute as Parks frees himself from the traditional structures of repetition that drill such ideas into your head. The result is a much more abstract and lasting slab of pop than most. |
Details on the implementation and chart selection process of "User Pick of the Day" can be found here and here, respectively. A chart documenting the previous picks can be found here.
Last edited by sp4cetiger on 03/28/2014 19:53; edited 1 time in total
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Mercury
Turn your back on the pay-you-back last call
Gender: Male
Location: St. Louis 
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- #3
- Posted: 03/28/2014 19:41
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If his goal was to reach the Brit-obsessed American public of the '60s, it was an abject failure -- the music changes tempo (and even genre) faster than lethalnezzle changes avatars. For me, though, it's a treat. Listen to this album with headphones and close your eyes. It will feel like you're dreaming Americana.
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meccalecca
Voice of Reason
Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment
- #4
- Posted: 03/28/2014 20:51
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Wildly originally. Definitely one of my favorite albums of the 60s.
it's no wonder that albums like Smile and Ys are as good as they are considering Van Dyke Parks' input.
_________________
http://jonnyleather.com
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- #5
- Posted: 03/28/2014 21:07
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Oh! Look at that! This just made #1 today and now there's a whole thread where I get to gush about how many more feels I've built up with it over the past week. But I will opt for brevity and just say that at present, Song Cycle has probably saved my life and in return I should flesh out its blurb on my chart some day. Ho hum.
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- #6
- Posted: 03/28/2014 21:15
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| satiemaniac wrote: | | Oh! Look at that! This just made #1 today and now there's a whole thread where I get to gush about how many more feels I've built up with it over the past week. But I will opt for brevity and just say that at present, Song Cycle has probably saved my life and in return I should flesh out its blurb on my chart some day. Ho hum. |
Do you still see it primarily as an intellectual exercise? I have to say, my experience with it was primarily emotional and I was surprised to see your number one described that way.
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- #7
- Posted: 03/28/2014 21:55
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I've listened to it once and from that all I really felt about it was that it was a poor man's Smile without the fantastic vocals, but I'll relisten to it at some point. Didn't really strike me though, I like Parks as a lyricist and I love the work he's done with other people but this album washed off me completely.
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- #8
- Posted: 03/28/2014 21:59
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God this has been under my radar for forever. Guess it's good a time as any to finally get around to it. (plus satiemaniac's wonderfully eloquent note regarding the album has me hyped)
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- #9
- Posted: 04/01/2014 02:25
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| sp4cetiger wrote: | | Do you still see it primarily as an intellectual exercise? I have to say, my experience with it was primarily emotional and I was surprised to see your number one described that way. |
i came here to mention that i updated and fleshed out the blurb about it on my list a bit and noticed that i hadn't responded to this when i thought i had. no, i don't see it that way anymore (thus the modification). after spending some wonderful sunny days listening to it on the grassy quad and enjoying the sights, i've become much more attached to its incredible heartbreak and nostalgia and how it's able to balance these potentially kitschy or hammy emotions with real compositional prowess to really make me emote as i listen as opposed to being receptive to emotion as a listener
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- #10
- Posted: 04/01/2014 02:30
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| satiemaniac wrote: | | on the grassy quad |
Are you at Tulane?
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