if you're in the mood for it." Words & Music writer Mark Leviton described the album as a mix of "Caribbean rhythms, '30 lyrics, modern pop, rhythm and blues and atonal classical techniques" which together form a "composite musical picture of the United States". He also drew attention to its unusual compositional elements, highlighting the "rampant counterpoint, counter-rhythms, odd harmonic progressions, non-resolving chords and obscure lyrics". Retrospectively, Jayson Greene Pitchfork noted the album's "distanced weirdness", writing that "Parks treats calypso with the same forensic fascination and trickster spirit he applied to Song Cycle", further considering Discover America to be more vaudevillian than that album. AllMusic reviewer Lindsay Planer praised Parks' "purity of vision", writing that few could create a concept album about America "entirely in the style of the Caribbean, most specifically Trinidad circa the 1940s". They deemed it an "eclectic masterpiece of multicultural Americana" and a "pop music history lesson that is without question one of the lost classics of the early '70s. Likewise, it may as easily have been several decades ahead of its time." In Uncut, Alaistar McKay considered the album a "joyous" celebration of Trinidadian culture balanced by sly commentary on post-colonial Trinidad and American race relations. He added that the album foreshadowed The Clash's work from "a decade later in their pan-global phase". Legacy In a 1997 interview, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys praised Discover America as one of his favorite albums. He said, "I liked Discover America by Van Dyke – that's the greatest album ever made. Oh. Have you heard it? I've played it, like, 50 times, maybe, over the years. I've really learned a lot from it. It's really something how you play something and you hear something and you don't quite hear exactly the way you did before. It's really different." Track listing All songs "public domain; arranged & adapted by Van Dyke Parks" unless otherwise noted. Side one "Jack Palance" (Mighty Sparrow) – 0:59 "Introduction" (Samuel Alter) – 0:27 "Bing Crosby" (The Lion) – 2:21 "Steelband Music" – 2:11 "The Four Mills Brothers" (The Lion) – 1:28 "Be Careful" – 2:48 "John Jones" (Rudy Mills) – 3:08 "FDR in Trinidad" (Fitz McLean) – 2:27 "Sweet Trinidad" – 0:56 Side two "Occapella" (Allen Toussaint) – 2:41 "Sailin' Shoes" (Lowell George) – 2:09 "Riverboat" (Allen Toussaint) – 3:02 "Ode to Tobago" (Lord Kitchener; arranged & adapted Van Dyke Parks) – 5:13