I'd like to think that my offhand comment 7 months ago ("Why has this band not recorded a kids' CD?") was the genesis of Snacktime, the first kids' music album from Canada's Barenaked Ladies. The band, after all, recorded the album in November and December of last year, a good month after my comment. I gotta tell you, if I was somehow responsible in some tiny way for the album, released tomorrow, that would justify a lot of my work here at Zooglobble -- this is one fun set of songs. (Note: I'm not delusionary enough to suggest that I actually am. But it's nice to dream, eh?)
Barenaked Ladies always seemed to me a little bit the yin to They Might Be Giants' yang when it came to geek rock -- while TMBG focused on absurdly catchy melodies, BNL's strength was more lyrical. From the goofiness of "If I Had a $1000000" to the wistfulness of "Brian Wilson" to the, er, I-have-no-idea-iness of "One Week" (which I will proudly admit to still adoring), the band always had a good narrative line and a fascination with words.
A fascination with words is a good thing to have for certain kids' albums, and it pays off well here. From the very first song -- "7 8 9," which takes the old kids' pun of a hungry #8 and #9's sad demise and turns it into a Western stomp that touches on Gordie Howe, Pluto, and canine (teeth) -- lovers of wordplay will rejoice here. There are several wordy classics here. On the soundplay of "Food Party" the band perfectly anthropomorphizes (sonically) tastes such as "sweet," "sour," and "bland." "Crazy ABCs" pretty much writes the final ABC song ever (sample line "G is for gnarly"). "Vegetable Town" is a slow, dreamy song about a place "Where we can ride the zucchini subway / Or watch the carrot planes land on the runway." "I Can Sing," on the other hand, is a zippy bluegrass tune which features lines like "I can dance I can dance I can dance faster / I tried to keep up but it was a disaster. / One more move and I'm gonna be the master! / So crank it up loud on the ghetto blaster."
Not every song works -- the title track, for example, mostly consists of musicians and actors (Geddy Lee, Lyle Lovett, Sarah McLachlan, Jason Priestly) phoning in their favorite snack foods, and after the first listen you're likely to skip forward (and probably once more, past "Popcorn"). But that's what happens when you put 24 tracks on a 54-minute album -- some are bound to be duds. And some songs aren't going to be of much interest to your kindergartner, but just means that songs like the awesomely rocking "Allergies" will make them convulse with laughter 3 years from now and make you hope that Dr. Demento is still recording his radio show, because it deserves to be there. (He is.)
The nice thing with all the silliness is it makes the more serious songs stand out more. "My Big Sister" encapsulates in just under a minute the woes of a younger brother and hand-me-downs. "Bad Day" is an "everything will be better" song that avoids sappiness.
The album will be of most interest to kids ages 5 through 9 and adults who got rid of their copies of Stunt a while back. [Raises hand.] You can hear some songs at their Myspace page or "Crazy ABCs" here.
By the way, you can also order the CD with a book from the band's own website. The book isn't absolutely essential -- it's just the lyrics to the songs with drawings from band member Kevin Hearn interspersed with the text -- but it's a solidly-bound hardcover, and I can't think of too many other kids' CDs where I would be more likely to read along to the lyrics with my kids than this one. It may be worth the extra $4 or $5 to you...
Snacktime is too long by half, kids will be bored by some of the songs, and "Humungous Tree" should probably be written as "Humongous Tree." And even with all that, it's still a great CD. It's not perfect, but the joy and spontaneity in its creation shines through. The Barenaked Ladies have crafted a CDs that will appeal to just about every family member, at least most of the time. It's a classic Barenaked Ladies album, just a little bit... smaller. Highly recommended.
Tyler Stewart was the last of the founding members of the rock group