Review: Color Wheel Cartwheel - Laura Freeman

I've been waiting a long time to review this album, longer than I should. I'd been waiting for Austin, Texas artist Laura Freeman to release the follow-up to her 2005 album Color Wheel Cartwheel, thinking I'd include that album in a review of the new album. Well, forget the new album (which will come out someday, just not today), because Color Wheel Cartwheel is pretty special; to wait any longer would just be wrong. The album is, as you'd expect from its title, a concept album, dealing with colors. Down through the rainbow the songs move, from "Red" to "Orange," on through "Yellow," "Green," "Blue," and "Indigo and Violet." ("Purple" is thrown in there for good measure.) It'd be pretty easy to make color songs just by listing things that are of that particular color, but the what makes this album so much better are the differing stylistic approaches for each song. "Red" is loud and brassy, "Orange" is sassy ("You take a little yellow / you take a little red / Mix 'em up together and voila! / Orange, oh orange / Orange makes me wanna cha-cha-cha"). "Yellow" is a mellow, bluesy little tune, while "Green" is set to classic country music. Certainly listing different items of particular colors help drive home the point for each song, but Freeman is also using the colors for jumping off into other stories (a philosophical discussion on blue jeans in "Indigo and Violet," for example). The differing approaches, the use of color to, well, color the songs, they give all the songs life. Interspersed between the songs are friends and musicians reciting the colors of the rainbow in various languages. I don't think there's any thought that kids will actually learn colors in a foreign language, they just subtly drive home the point about colors being all around us in the world. Freeman went to New Orleans to record the album, and she's pulled in contributions from a whole bunch of musicians. Kids ages 2 through 7 will most derive educational value from the songs. You can hear samples of the songs at the under-30-minute album's CDBaby page. I mentioned to Laura Freeman recently that Color Wheel Carthweel was a fun little album and she replied, "Well, we had a lot of fun making it." That fun is evident on this excellent little disk. I hesitate to call it an "educational" album, because every album is educational, but also because it unfairly narrows down the prospective audience. This is one of the rare "educational" CDs your family will listen to long after they've mastered the concepts inside. Definitely recommended.

Review in Brief: Musiplication - Kat Vellos

You've probably noticed that I don't review a lot of "educational" CDs. There are a couple reasons for that -- first, I don't have much of a clue as to their pedagogical soundness. Second, and perhaps more importantly for the purposes of this site, the music usually just doesn't move me. We are about entertainment and community around here -- if your kids happen to learn something found in a textbook, too, well, that's just a bonus. So let me describe Musiplication With Kat Vellos this way -- I don't envision myself listening to this on my own or after my kids have mastered the times table. But that doesn't mean it isn't good listening. Kat Vellos is a former teacher as well as a spoken word poet and with her first CD Musiplication has put together a sweet little collection of times tables set to music. Yeah, you heard me -- "times tables set to music." Vellos breaks through the pedagogical boredom barrier that phrase implies in two ways. One, each times table (especially as you make your way into the higher digits) is presented as a story of sorts -- giving each multiple of 6, for example, a distinct family personality type in "6 Family Reunion" or crazy stories in "7's Tall Tales." You're still hearing the same basic repetition of the tables, but at least it's presented with verve; Vellos' spoken word poetry experience gives the stories shape. Second, Vellos' words are underlaid with some laid-back beats courtesy of the producer Batsauce. Layered with old-school funk and soul, it gives the whole CD a deliciously organic feel. While younger kids might enjoy the stories here, the target audience is clearly slightly older kids, ages 7 through 10. You can listen to samples at the album's CDBaby page. Because it's trying hard to teach times tables, it doesn't quite reach the "listen anytime" nature of something like TMBG's Here Come the 123s -- if you know the times tables, you probably won't spin this too much. But it does its job with as musically pleasant a background as you'll care to hear. It's about as good an "educational" CD as they come.

Review in Brief: One Day Soon - The Sippy Cups

With the release today of their One Day Soon EP, San Francisco's The Sippy Cups have followed the lead of other, more adult-oriented bands, who consider EPs an integral part of their musical release pattern. The five songs here were recorded as part of the band's sessions for their upcoming 2009 release, and is the first new album from the band since October 2006. So are the songs worth the wait? Well, mostly yes. "One Day Soon" kicks off the album, a mid-tempo number about growing up (or at least older) that would have fit perfectly on the generally more rocking Electric Storyland. So would have "Ladybug Beat," at least if it had been plugged in (it's acoustic here). I've already talked a little bit about "The Day After Halloween,", which is a bit of departure from the Sippys' normal metaphor-filled and fanciful songwriting. Its melancholy nature is a perfect fit for fall -- it's a Halloween song that isn't just for Halloween, and is my favorite track here. "Listen With Your Eyes" is a sweet lullaby (though there's a bit too much going on for it to be effectively used an actual lullaby). The only false step is "Effervescing Elephant." Ironically for a band which started out primarily playing covers of '60s era psychedelic songs, this Syd Barrett cover falls flat. It's supposedly a live staple of the band, but this off-the-cuff version just doesn't have any oomph. The album will appeal mostly to kids ages 4 through 10. The album is about 14 minutes long and, perhaps most interestingly, is available only as an iTunes download. At $3.99 for the whole album, it's pretty cheap. It's a small but decent collection of tracks which can only serve to heighten anticipation for their upcoming full-length. Newcomers to the band can probably wait (or go back to Electric Storyland forthwith), but fans will definitely enjoy this, too. Recommended.

Review in Brief: You Can't Rock Sittin' Down - The Mighty Weaklings

With several albums for adults under their belts, you would be forgiven for thinking the New York band The Mighty Weaklings was just cashing in on the kids music trend with the recent release of their first kids album You Can't Rock Sittin' Down.That wouldn't be entirely fair, seeing as singer/bassplayer Matt Vogel's been a Sesame Street puppeteer for a dozen years and they've already had a video on Jack's Big Music Show. This album will seriously appeal to families with a powerpop weakness."The Monster Under My Bed" tells about a kid who's best friend is a monster, and rocks in doing so.The album's best song, "The Grumpy Song," features a banjo-inflected bluegrass tune, vocals Sesame Street/Muppet Show/Fraggle Rock puppeteer Jerry Nelson, and a chorus of kids (and adults) shouting "I'm Grumpy" in such a way that is guaranteed to put a dorky grin on the listener's face. The album as whole has a very strong Muppet Show vibe -- interspersed among the 9 songs are 5 skits.At times I thought the skits were pitched squarely at me the thirty-something parent and wouldn't entertain the younger listeners at all.The knowing humor didn't really match the earnestness of the rest of the songs like "It's Sunny When You Share" (get it?), the imaginzative "Rocket Ship" (from Jack's, and the try-try-again theme of "Fallin' Down."You could easily find the materials for an episode or three of The Mighty Weaklings Show inside the album -- it's not hard to picture a TV show, even without puppets. The 33-minute album's pitched mostly at kids ages 4 through 8.You can hear samples here or listen via the player embedded past the jump.Despite some awkwardness from the skits themselves, the songs here are solid kid-friendly power-pop.Your kids will find that You Can't Rock Sittin' Down ranks high on the "rock" scale and low on the "sittin' down" scale.Recommended.

Review in Brief: I Count To Ten and other Very Helpful Songs - David Tobocman

It's been nearly 7 months since I first watched (and wrote about) David Tobocman's fabulous video for his song "Home." (If you haven't watched it, stop reading this, click on the link, and see you back here in about 3 minutes. Really. Go now.) Clearly I liked the video, so you might be wondering, why in the world haven't I review the rest of Tobocman's debut, I Count To Ten and other Very Helpful Songs? And the answer is... well, I have no good reason. I can't blame this on the dog eating the CD or a snowstorm -- sometimes good CDs just don't get reviewed on the site in a timely manner. In any case, many CDs attempt to impart lessons to kids -- I know, I've heard a lot of them -- but very few do so in a totally appealing musical manner. This CD easily makes that small but distinguished list. I think there are a couple reasons for it. The first is that the songs are, for the most part, solid. The jazzy title track and "Brush Your Teeth," the pop of "My Rainbow," the country, banjo-inflected "Buttons and Bows" -- they're great melodies back up by well-crafted instrumentation. And more than half a year after I first heard it, I'm still moved by "Home," easily one of the top kids music tracks of the year. The second reason for the album's appeal I think is that instead of conveying its lessons as a direct "you should do X" or "everybody feel Y," the lyrics are sometimes sung from a first-person perspective, telling the listener how the singer reacts. So the singer counts to ten and doesn't feel so angry ("I Count to Ten"), or the singer keeps his pajamas on through the night ("Jammies Song," based on a real-life problem Tobocman encountered with his daughter). It's not always the case, but there's very little sense of "should" here, and that makes the lessons easier for everyone to take. The songs are most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 7. You can hear lengthy clips from the 33-minute album here and here. David Tobocman's I Count to Ten and other Very Helpful Songs is a solid little album. I can't guarantee your kids won't blow their top as much or brush their teeth more willingly with repeated listens, but I'm pretty sure you or your kids won't blow your tops if you listen to this a lot. Recommended.

Review: Rock All Day, Rock All Night - The Nields

With their latest album, Massachusetts' The Nields joins the company of the Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam. Really. That's right, because on their new 2-CD family album, Rock All Day, Rock All Night, the Nields sisters join those two alternative rock heavyweights in putting out an album with both an uptempo and a downtempo disk. (Those two albums, in case you're wondering -- the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor and Pearl Jam's best-of rearviewmirror.) Now, I can't say that the Nields rock quite as hard as those bands do, but I'm also not sure there's anything quite as giddy on those disks as on the sisters' banter on the brass-band-accented "Muffin Man." (Did you know there was a whole neighborhood on Drury Lane? Well, you do now.) The first disk is a mixture of folk songs and originals (some old, some new). The sisters have run a HooteNanny program for families with young kids, and many of the songs sound like they are come from that program. Unlike a lot of CD collections from kids and family music programs, however, the collection actually holds together as a decent listening experience even if you've never taken a class with them. It's probably mostly due to the fact that there are some really good songs here. The traditional "Going To Boston" kicks off the disk, and like many of the tracks, there's a life to the recording that encourages you to sing along. The brass band sounds great on "When The Saints Go Marching In," as it does on "Muffin Man" (as noted above). The new tracks are no slouches either, with "Who Are You Not To Shine" -- a shimmery folk-rock song and worthy successor to "Anna Kick A Hole in the Sky" from the last disk -- and "Superhero Soup," actually one of the oldest songs in the Nields' songbook, but re-purposed here. Not all of the tracks are great, but, like I said, as a whole, it holds together well. The second, slower disk is, unsurprisingly, less focused on singalongs and more focused on great, slower songs. I hesitate to call it a classic lullaby disk as there isn't quite a hush-ness that I associate with lullaby disks. Instead, it's more like a warm nook on a cold day, encouraging you to stay put and contemplate the day and maybe drift off for a tiny nap. (Or, if you're a kid, play with your Legos or read a book.) One of my all-time favorite ballads, "Wild Mountain Thyme," makes an appearance, with the Nields' dad, John Nields singing along (as on the first album, he sings on several tracks). The Nields also engage in some re-purposing here, as "Easy People," one of their most famous songs, gets a simple treatment. I think I like this disk slightly better than the "day" disk, but that's just a personal preference for the more classic songs. The first disk is probably most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 7; the second disk is essentially all-ages. Right now, the disk only available through the Nields themselves (go here to order), though national distribution will start shortly). For samples, you're best off checking out the YouTube clips I've compiled here. The Nields continue to make vital family folk music with humor and tenderness. Rock All Day, Rock All Night is an all-purpose collection of songs that will serve your family well in times both of play and rest. Definitely recommended.