I must admit I am a big fan of Sufjan's Seven Swans. Since then, he has expanded his music, and I can definitely accept that fact. However, this CD is as overproduced and overwritten as any I have heard in a long time. I too can hear some Pet Sounds, or maybe a little Sgt Pepper influence, but it seems like he is trying too hard to make an epic-sounding album, and ends up turning out a lot of clutter. I know that Sufjan may not completely turn back to his "folkier ways", and I am not stubborn enough to hold that against him. I sense that a lot of people will buy this album thinking that, because the titles are long, and the work is "complicated", they are buying something only understood by the enlightened few. The bottom line, to me, is that Sufjan is trying way too hard on this CD. I wish he knew that he doesn't have to try to be the offspring of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson to be seen as a wonderful songwriter.