With FLYING!, Recess Monkey put together the best kids' album of 2011, at least according to one august group of folks. The band liked the title track so much, they put it on the album twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. Now, truth be told, the album closer is wistful and more for the parents than the kids. So, yeah, the video for the reprised version is likely to elicit one or two "Awwwwwwwww...."s.
Recess Monkey - "Flying (Reprise)" [YouTube]
Best Kids Music 2011: Top 25 Albums
The high point in my list of the best kids music of 2011 is this, my list of my favorite kids music albums of the year.
By "year," again, I mean albums with Nov. 1, 2010 through Oct. 31, 2011 release dates available to the general public. That means albums like Laura Veirs' Tumble Bee, with a Nov. 8, 2011 release date, have to wait another 12 months before appearing in this list. (I would be shocked -- albeit incredibly delighted -- if there were 25 albums better than that particular one in the next year.)
I do use the word "favorite" advisedly. I receive something approaching 300 family music albums every year. I review maybe 20% of those. Last year I picked out 20 albums, and cutting off this list this year at 20 just seemed cruel. But, as it turns out, increasing the number on the list to 25 didn't make things any easier. Albums from folks like Laura Doherty, Chip Taylor, Todd McHatton, and ScribbleMonster -- albums I genuinely liked -- didn't make the list. That's what happens when albums in the top 10% of everything I heard this year can't fit into the number of slots available; I had probably about 40 albums I was seriously considering for this list. So the difference between what goes in this list and what stays off is as much about personal preferences as it is about "objective" quality. (That's why I came up with the idea for Fids and Kamily, thinking that the personal preferences of many folks would be a much better approximation of "best.")
In any case, here are those 25 albums, ranked from most favorite to a little less most favorite, that I (and we) most appreciated this year. (As always, the top 10 reflects my Fids and Kamily ballot.)
1. Caspar Babypants
Sing Along!
[Review]
"I really, really like Sing Along! -- the Caspar Babypants disks have been favorites at our house for a long time, and I see no reason why this new album won't join its predecessors in heavy rotation. If he can keep it up, Chris Ballew might just create a body of work for preschoolers to rival Raffi's."
1. Caspar Babypants
Sing Along!
[Review]
"I really, really like Sing Along! -- the Caspar Babypants disks have been favorites at our house for a long time, and I see no reason why this new album won't join its predecessors in heavy rotation. If he can keep it up, Chris Ballew might just create a body of work for preschoolers to rival Raffi's."Christmas Songs 2011, Part II
Part 1 of my list of this year's Christmas songs for kids was out of date as soon as I hit "publish," because I realized that I'd forgotten Billy Kelly's video from Dear Santa Claus (review). Maybe I was distracted by the mindbending song. Or maybe I was just wondering if this video is Kelly's video resume for applying to direct Paranomal Activity 4: The Christmas Special.
Billy Kelly - "Glebells Jing" [YouTube]
I reviewed Rosie Thomas' album A Very Rosie Christmas a few years back -- it's pretty good. (Anyone who can take a Chipmunks song and turn it into something earns lots of bonus points.) Anyway, she's got a new holiday tune out -- I don't think it's quite as good as the 2008 album, but you may like it...
(Or just stream the whole holiday album here.)
I reviewed Rosie Thomas' album A Very Rosie Christmas a few years back -- it's pretty good. (Anyone who can take a Chipmunks song and turn it into something earns lots of bonus points.) Anyway, she's got a new holiday tune out -- I don't think it's quite as good as the 2008 album, but you may like it...
(Or just stream the whole holiday album here.)Monday Morning Smile: The Ultimate "Sing" Post (feat. Laura Doherty)
My kids have been singing "Sing," the classic Joe Raposo song written for the first season of Sesame Street in 1970, for a few weeks now. It's because they've had Laura Doherty's fine album Shining Like a Star (CD Baby | iTunes) on rotation in the minivan.
Which made me think that I should totally do a "Monday Morning Smile" on the song. Because while it's ostensibly (and originally) a "kids' song," it clearly has entered the American songbook as a song appropriate for all ages.
And then it occurred to me, maybe I can get Laura's version in this post -- a version I really like and which I would've put into my "Top 25 Songs" list if I didn't think it wasn't a little unfair to put such a classic song in there. Luckily, she agreed to let me feature it here. So let's kick off this post with an exclusive, limited-time-only stream of "Sing" from Laura's Shining Like a Star album. [Ed.: I told you, limited-time-only.]
And then it occurred to me, maybe I can get Laura's version in this post -- a version I really like and which I would've put into my "Top 25 Songs" list if I didn't think it wasn't a little unfair to put such a classic song in there. Luckily, she agreed to let me feature it here. So let's kick off this post with an exclusive, limited-time-only stream of "Sing" from Laura's Shining Like a Star album. [Ed.: I told you, limited-time-only.]
Video: "Tomboy in a Princess Dress" - Suzi Shelton
Suzi Shelton's new EP Tomboy in a Princess Dress has been out for a couple weeks now, but it officially gets a big kickoff this afternoon as Shelton releases her video for the title track. Even a couple boys in the video, so it's not totally for the pre-tween girls.
Suzi Shelton - "Tomboy in a Princess Dress" [Vimeo]
By the way you can listen to the whole EP here. The EP was produced by Baze and his Silly Friends' Marc Bazerman and also features Little Miss Ann on "Pony Boy."
Tomboy In A Princess Dress by SuziSheltonChristmas CD Reviews (2011 Edition, Part 1)
So many Christmas albums have crossed my desk (real or virtual) this year that I'm splitting my reviews up into 2 parts -- one for kids music artists or albums targeted at kids (this one) and one for the rest of the musical world. That distinction is a little fuzzy, because Christmas music, generally, is pretty family-friendly as it is. In any case, there are one or two albums here that could have been in the next installment, and there are a handful of artists in that next installment whose names are familiar to the kids music world.
Because what people are looking for in Christmas music differs dramatically, these reviews are ordered in rough order of most to least "goofy." "Goofy" is merely a descriptive term, not a pejorative term -- it just helps those different people who want different things from their holiday music figure out where on the spectrum they should be reading.
It is not terribly surprising that I would lead off this list -- the "most goofy" -- with an album from The Jimmies. Ashley Albert and crew have expanded their holiday EP from last year into a full-length Mama Said Nog You Out. (The title alone should clue you in on their attitude.) It's not that they're disrespectful to the season, just that they're more interested in its absurdities. The chant-y original "Nogturne in C Minor," turning "Sleigh Ride" into lite-funk, and making the-already-not-too-reverential "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" into a Marcia Ball-style blues strut -- these are not the songs of someone who's going to somberly celebrate. (And with several songs celebrating non-Christmas holidays, it's appropriate for wiseacre families of every creed.) Available exclusively at Barnes and Noble, or get a free download if you order their latest album Practically Ridiculous from the Jimmies at their website.
Billy Kelly is next up with Dear Santa Claus, a 5-song EP featuring the typical Billy Kelly-ian stew of wordplay and earnestness mixed with a little bit of Bart Simpson. The classic song here is "Glebells Jing!," which Kelly first featured a couple years ago and has somehow managed to rope an entire chorus to sing its mind-bending alteration of "Jingle Bells." (I think the cheer at the end of the song is one of relief.) The other tracks do a better job of celebrating the (secular) season, but none will stick in your head like "Glebells Jing!" Purchase the album at Amazon or iTunes. All proceeds will benefit Camp Victory, a Pennsylvania camp designed for kids with chronic health illness or disabilities.
It is not terribly surprising that I would lead off this list -- the "most goofy" -- with an album from The Jimmies. Ashley Albert and crew have expanded their holiday EP from last year into a full-length Mama Said Nog You Out. (The title alone should clue you in on their attitude.) It's not that they're disrespectful to the season, just that they're more interested in its absurdities. The chant-y original "Nogturne in C Minor," turning "Sleigh Ride" into lite-funk, and making the-already-not-too-reverential "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" into a Marcia Ball-style blues strut -- these are not the songs of someone who's going to somberly celebrate. (And with several songs celebrating non-Christmas holidays, it's appropriate for wiseacre families of every creed.) Available exclusively at Barnes and Noble, or get a free download if you order their latest album Practically Ridiculous from the Jimmies at their website.
Billy Kelly is next up with Dear Santa Claus, a 5-song EP featuring the typical Billy Kelly-ian stew of wordplay and earnestness mixed with a little bit of Bart Simpson. The classic song here is "Glebells Jing!," which Kelly first featured a couple years ago and has somehow managed to rope an entire chorus to sing its mind-bending alteration of "Jingle Bells." (I think the cheer at the end of the song is one of relief.) The other tracks do a better job of celebrating the (secular) season, but none will stick in your head like "Glebells Jing!" Purchase the album at Amazon or iTunes. All proceeds will benefit Camp Victory, a Pennsylvania camp designed for kids with chronic health illness or disabilities.
