Itty-Bitty Review: The Littlest Star - Meadows

The annoyance some parents feel upon hearing the classics of kids' music isn't due to the melodies themselves. The melodies, in fact, because they've survived for centuries in some cases, are some of the best ever. Parents' anger, rather, is a result of repetition and, sometimes, poor execution. The littlest things, like providing the barest minimum of interesting accompaniment and slightly different (but real) instrumention, can push the date of the inevitable "I can't take this anymore!" way out into the future. So it is with The Littlest Star, the debut album from Meadows. The band is a side project from musician and composer Keith Kenniff and his wife Hollie (who also perform together in their indie-rock band Mint Julep). Most of the tracks are renditions of standard wiggleworm-y classics like "Shoofly Don't Bother Me," "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O," and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." The arrangements are muted and tasteful, lots of acoustic guitar and piano. Hollie Kenniff gets the majority of vocals here; her relaxed voice induces calm and fits the simple tunes perfectly. Their banjo-assisted take on "You Are My Sunshine" is particularly lovely. The originals (e.g., "Flutter Like a Butterfly," "Three Kangaroos") are pleasant enough, but tend toward the cute end of the spectrum and I found myself preferring the standards to these. The 33-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 0 through 5. You can hear samples at their homepage, but to listen to fill tracks, check out the Unseen Music YouTube channel. You'll probably find Meadows' sound as reminiscent of Elizabeth Mitchell's (minus the inspired cover song choices). I'd go with Mitchell's CDs over The Littlest Star, but the fact that I'm even bothering to compare the two speaks highly of the Meadows' ability to make childhood classics listenable for a long time. Recommended. Disclosure: I received a (digital) copy of the album for possible review.

Itty-Bitty Review: Hey Pepito! - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Oh, to have the energy of Pepito, the titular squirrel the latest EP of Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke. I'd be able to knock out these reviews in four, five minutes flat. Perhaps I could do that if I just wrote something like, "I've yet to hear a Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke song that I haven't liked" and left it at that. But you probably expect just a little bit more (even though it's true). So, then, in brief, the six songs of Hey Pepito!: 1) "Pepito": a gigantic adrenaline rush that might, in the long run, get a little wearisome when you listen to it for the four-hundredth time, as your kids will invariable make you do. (Purchase the album via Little Monster (or the widget below) and get an e-copy of a Wilde-drawn comic featuring Pepito to boot.) 2) "Don Mario's Song": Another ear-wormy chorus, with the added benefit of an extended Latin percussion break, each instrument named in turn. I love "Pepito," but I think this is the best song on the album. 3) "Talking Big Pet Pig": This pig looms large in KWMC iconography -- here he gets an origin story, done Dylan-pre-electric-style. 4) "It's So Good": Previously released, is that a samba I hear? 5) "Mary the Fairy": Also previously released, the story of a flight-challenged and inattentive fairy. 6) "Summer Lullaby": As tender a song as "Pepito" and "Don Mario's Song" are rave-ups. The songs are most appropriate for kids ages through 3 through 7. Listen to the whole EP by streaming it via the player below. Hey Pepito! is a fun 22 minutes, a worthy albeit brief follow up to their wonderful debut Rise and Shine. Or, to put it another way, I've still yet to hear a Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke song that I haven't liked. Definitely recommended. [Disclosure: I received a copy of the album for possible review.]

Itty-Bitty Review Two-Fer: Mr. Leebot and Lloyd Miller

There are pitfalls in trying to be objective in reviewing music, especially in the close-knit world of kindie music, where if everybody doesn't know everybody (yet), the degrees of separation are small enough that it makes Kevin Bacon look like a loner. And while I deal with that constantly here, adding a layer of "good works" on top of it all, well, consider this then your grain of salt for the two albums discussed here.

First off is Austin's Mr. Leebot, whose latest album Erratic Schematic is fundraiser for an orphanage in Ethiopia from which Mr. Leebot (AKA Lee Davila) and his wife recently adopted two babies. As I've previously mentioned, the idea of adoption is important to me, so I was predisposed to like this album from the get-go. While Mr. Leebot's sound -- think of him as DEVO's kids music side project -- may not be for everyone, he's started to ever-so-slightly fill out his sound (I like the New Wave sound of "Cleaning Theme"). As a whole, it's Leebot's best album yet. And the track at the heart of the album -- "Our Family" -- should be heard far and wide. (Listen to it here -- just scroll down the page.) The album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7. You can listen to samples here. As for an album geared toward a slightly older crowd, how about Hamlet? That's for high schoolers, right? Well ,The Deedle Deedle Dees' Lloyd Miller would beg to differ, having helped his wife's second grade class to write a musical based on the play. Miller recruited Dog on Fleas' Dean Jones and a couple of the Dees to record the music along with kids in the class. The result, Hamlet: The Album, is alternately rockin' ("Something's Rotten!") and pensive ("Tush, Tush") -- a little bit like the play itself, no? In best Fleas/Dees fashion, the album is ragged around the edges, the Band or the Stones mixed with a Shakespeare and Sesame Street. I'd much rather listen to these kids sing than any number of auto-tuned KidzBoppers. The album will be most appreciated by kids ages 6 to 11. And if the story behind the album isn't appealing enough, perhaps you'll be heartened to hear that all profits from the album will go to Japan earthquake relief. Listen (or order the album) below. While neither Erratic Schematic nor Hamlet: The Musical have a broad enough appeal for me to endorse the albums unreservedly for all listeners, both are solid enough albums to merit a listen even without the totally worthy backstories. I think a lot of readers will find a lot to like here. Give 'em a spin, maybe even your ducats. Recommended. Disclosure: I received a copy of Erratic Schematic for possible review.

Itty-Bitty Review: All I Want! - David Weinstone (Music for Aardvarks)

While David Weinstone has been incredibly successful licensing his Music for Aardvarks classes, he has not done a lot of recording for the general public. Which is a little bit sad, because Weinstone is a pretty good songwriter. And on his latest album, All I Want!, he has a number of stellar songs. While some of the songs seem like they originated out of his MFA classes, many of the songs (for the most part, my favorites) sound like they were created outside of a class context. Like a number of artists, Weinstone attempts to cover a broad range of musical styles, from old-timey Dixieland ("I Want a Puppy!") to fuzzed-out Guided By Voices-style rock ("Mighty Milo") to a harmonica-accented waltz ("Beach Song"). "All I Want!" thrashes harder than any kids' song you'll all year, and probably most of the adult songs, too. Although the genre-hopping can be head-spinning, Weinstone's adept at all of it, while also channeling a bit of Barry Louis Polisar acerbic-kid humor (sample from "Better Keep Your Eye on Me!": "I like cell phones, they taste good / They're expensive, man they should.") The album will be most appreciated by kids ages 3 through 6. You can listen to a few songs here. All I Want isn't always an "album" as we might typically think of a coherent set of music, but as a collection of songs, it is a pretty good one. Even families who have never heard of MFA are bound to find a least a couple of songs that will tickle their fancy. Recommended. Disclosure: I received a copy of the album for possible review.

Book/CD Review: Two Albums from Mr. and Mrs. Muffins

Some artists are busy recording music for already-written books, while plenty of other artists write their own books to go along with their music. The Seattle duo Mr. and Mrs. Muffins are charting a third, less-traveled course in the family music world -- writing books that serve as the basis for new music. Late last year they released a couple book/CD collections -- The Adventures of Ms. Rabbit and Mr. Carrot and The Striped Ladybird. "Book" is probably a bit strong of a word for those families still strongly in the physical object camp, as the only book available is a PDF document. But the books look pretty nice on an iPad while following along to the mp3s. Musically, both albums are a throwback to a good fifty years or so in the past, with Ladybird offering up some bossa nova and other laid-back Brazilian sounds and chamber pop (even a little Beach Boys), while Ms. Rabbit provides more of a Parisian vibe (dig the accordion). Each album features musical interudes interspersed with narration of the story. The stories themselves are gently moralistic fables, teaching lessons (Ms. Rabbit: making friends is a good thing; Ladybird: it's OK to be different). The concept of the interaction between the book and the music doesn't work perfectly as there isn't enough visually in the book between the narrative to hold the attention of the reader for most of the musical interludes. But the art direction is pretty, especially for Ms. Rabbit. The stories are most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7. You can stream both albums below, or, go here to stream just the music from both disks (a "best of" which, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, will be pressed on vinyl). If you're choosing, I'd go with The Adventures of Ms. Rabbit and Mr. Carrot for the art direction and The Striped Ladybird for the music. Recommended for fans of dreamy stories and sounds for a rainy day -- I hope this is just the beginning... Disclosure: None! I bought these e-books myself.

Itty-Bitty Review: The Little House Songs - Caroline Herring

It's not often ignorance can make for a better review, but it just might in this case. Selected ignorance, in any case. I was actually familiar with Caroline Herring's recording of The Little House Songs, an album (or musical, really) based on the 1942 book The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. I also followed the Atlanta-based Herring as she financed the album via a successful Kickstarter campaign. But the book itself? Sorry, it's one of those Caldecott Medal winners I missed. (I had to check Wikipedia for the publication date.) So while I can't say whether the album adequately reimagines an obviously well-loved book, I can say whether it evokes a well-loved book, and on that score, it succeeds. In brief -- and I say this solely based on listening to the album (though I've now since seen the summary) -- a house is built in the country, an expanding city encroaches upon it, it falls into disrepair, a new owner falls in love with it and moves it into the country once again. Obviously there are themes of wistfulness and the passage of time, and Herring does a great job of conveying those themes musically, such as on the wistful "The City Grew Up Around Her" and "Shabby." But it's not entirely downbeat -- "Building of the Road" is an uptempo folk-rocker propulsively carried along by rhythm guitar and Herring's voice until it just slows down, while I loved the violin's mimicking of wheels on happy "House on Wheels." It's mostly folk, with some songs tending a little more country, all tastefully arranged. Kids ages 3 through 7 will most appreciate the 25-minute album. You can listen to all of "House on Wheels" here and other clips here and here. The Little House Songs is a simple little album, made with care, much as the book that inspired it was. (It's also made me want to read the book, which is always a good sign of the quality of an interpretation in a different medium.) Herring reportedly is interested in doing more of these albums based on children's books. Based on this first attempt, I am hoping she is true to her word. Recommended. Disclosure: I received a copy of the album in my registration bag at Kindiefest.