"Money Is King" / "Wall Street"
Released: May 10, 2011
"Dreaming of Paris" / "Wedding in Madagascar (Faranaina)"
Released: May 10, 2011
"Black Gold" / "Aquarium"
Released: January 2012
"Amazing Graces" / "Hold Back Time"
Released: January 2012
"The All Golden" / "Sassafrass"
Released: March 2012
"Missin' Missippi" / "The Parting Hand"
Released: March 2012

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	76/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Chicago Tribune
Consequence of Sound
The Observer
Pitchfork Media	7.2/10
Tiny Mix Tapes
Record Collector
Rolling Stone

Songs Cycled is the seventh studio album by Van Dyke Parks, released on Bella Union in 2013. It is his first of original material since 1995's Orange Crate Art. It features relatively new compositions, re-recordings, and covers by Parks.

Throughout 2011 and 2012, Parks began sporadically releasing a series of 7" singles through his independent record label Bananastan spanning both archives and recently recorded songs. On April 2, 2013 (2013-04-02), he announced the release of Songs Cycled on Bella Union, which would compile each single into one LP.

The title is an overt reference to Parks' debut album Song Cycle (1968), released 45 years earlier. Parks has said that he's likened it to Songs Cycled in that "in both cases, there’s a maverick on the loose, with a highly personal set of tunes and instrumentals. All of them reveal an iconoclast tilting at windmills, railing at tyrants, barking at masters of war, and celebrating a shameless commitment to the very definition of ‘Americana’." It also has a meaning of himself having come full circle in his recording career. Parks has expressed that Songs Cycled could "arguably" be his last album due to financial and physical challenges.

Much of the album contains themes that deal with recent American controversies. Regarding his general style, Parks said, "I think it is safe to say that my work can be branded Americana, but I think it's also safe to say it can be branded 'anti-Americana' and 'an inconvenient truth' as well.…There is very little 'divergent music' made in America. I go to 'worldbeat' to get out of the box. I think those influences show in my perspective." He continues, "I'm not troubled by variety; I like that in a show. I think it's okay to have that kind of a diet, and that confuses people who want an album all wrapped up, lassoed like a branded cow. They want it all to somehow be tightly connected, but I can't do that." Parks named his cover of Billy Edd Wheeler's "Sassafrass" as "outlaw chamber music," elaborating, "I did something heretical in taking his simple song and having my way with it—and deconstructing it intentionally as an 'inquiry' into the song—and hopefully to still celebrate the charm of its author."

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Wikipedia