JUST THE FACTS: This is a terrific album. Some people really seem to get offended by so-called "difficult" listening. I don't see how this is such difficult material except that the music doesn't stay anyplace for more than a few bars at a time, then ventures off somewhere completely else. For me, that's a big plus, -- it makes each brief moment all the more sweet, that's to say "catchy". As for the reviewer who said that Van Dyke was just "playing" with a big orchestra, I don't feel like that reviewer gave this album the time and repeated listenings that its intricacy deserves. You can certainly tell that VDP was enjoying himself. However, everything is where it should be. Even the little sound effects that pop in, like the sound of crickets when he mentions the nightime, etc. -- it's all very perfect. Van's genius is that he makes his convoluted compositions seem effortless, perfection to a flaw, as if he is indeed just playing around the studio. So be sure to listen carefully and you might be rewarded.
I take off one star for Van's voice. I've gotten used to it, but it can be a bit hard to take certain times throughout the album the first few times you hear it. That said, I can't really imagine anyone else singing on this. I love the accompanying female singers, and perhaps they should have been given more prominence. Van's voice is something that bothers you less the more you hear it.
Be sure and check out VDP's following album, "Discover America", which is a completely different direction, and from comparing the respective artist photos, a completely different VDP. His voice on "Discover America" is also much more pleasant.
I'm hoping fans of the resurrected "SMiLE" album by Brian Wilson, which VDP had a heavy hand in, will find their way to this album.

Van Dyke Parks' best album. Beautifully produced and written. The lyrics are poetic. Shows that VDP's best work wasn't behind him after writing SMiLE.

but man, I love this album now. The first four times I listened to this album I could not stand it. But it grows on you - like Smile. Pick this up if you are a patient person, or are up for an Americana/psychadelic adventure. Not for the weak. Van Dyke is genius - one of the most underrated musicians in history as this album proves. Highly recommended.

Van Dyke Parks did the arrangements on Sam Phillips's debut 'The Indescribable Wow', an album I love so much I thought I'd give 'Song Cycle' a shot.

What a feeerocious disappointment! I'd give it zero stars if I could, but amazon wouldn't let me!

My god, that singing voice of his reminds me of David Bowie... "The Laughing Gnome" Bowie, that is... I've seen the word "coy" pop up in a lot of reviews to describe his singing, er, style, but I'll go them all one better... "smug". All I hear in it is "Ooh, I'm so smart. What a clever lad am I."

The arrangements or orchestrations, or whatever you call them are all pointless. It gives me the feeling that Van's dad bought him an orchestra and said, "Here, son, have fun." So young Van did... without ever really learning how to use it properly. Randy Newman KNOWS how to use an orchestra; check out his best album 'Sail Away'. The arrangements are tasteful and, key word here, SPARE. He never clubs us over the head with them.

The lyrics, if we can call them such, have no attachment whatsoever to the music.... but then again since I wrote that the arrangments are pointless I guess it's to be expected.
So, what we have is a trifecta of awfulness: bad voice, bad lyrics, and bad music.

HOWEVER, he did make 'Song Cycle' in 1968 and worked on 'The Indescribable Wow' in 1988... so he did learn a thing or two in 20 years, namely that arrangements are NOT songs; they're used to highlight a certain verse or chorus the singer really wants to put across to the listener... maybe Randy pulled him aside once to tell him that...

At the time that this album came out, Van Dyke Parks was mostly known (if he was known at all) as Brian Wilson's songwriting collaborator on the unreleased Smile album. Part of the reason that Smile wasn't released was because the other Beach Boys didn't "get" Parks' lyrics. Well, on this album his lyrics are pretty strange as well. Actually, the lyrics are often unintelligible, due to the excessive echo added to his voice (probably to hide a weak singing voice). This is a very uncommercial album, which Warner Brothers deserves all the credit in the world for releasing. Having said that, it's not very enjoyable to listen to. It's an album that's more admirable than enjoyable.