An all-star cast has joined forces to produce a wonderful CD and, if that weren't exciting enough, a portion of the proceeds will help restore music education in the U.S. public school system through the VHI Save the Music Foundation. Clever new renditions of familiar Muppets and Sesame Street tunes abound, but Semisonic's Dan Wilson, ex-Del Fuego artist Dan Zanes, Toad the Wet Sprocket's Glen Phillips, and Bleu wrote songs for this album, and Tom Waits's lullaby "Bend Down the Branches," originally recorded for a short film, makes its debut on this CD. No offense, Kermit, but the frog's 1979-vintage "The Rainbow Connection" never sounded so sultry as Sarah McLachlan's version here. Another favorite is "The Hoppity Song," a rock & roll ode to Five for Fighting frontman John Ondrasik's son Johnny. Make no mistake--this isn't one of those CDs that is more for adults than kids--songs about hygiene, the alphabet, and crying ("It's All Right to Cry" originally from Marlo Thomas's Free to Be You and Me) are truly "for the kids." That said, adults will enjoy hearing their favorite artists switch gears in this gentle (mostly, not Bleu's energetic "Snow Day!"), upbeat compilation, which combines just the right blend of familiar sing-along songs and exciting new material. The booklet doubles as a foldout coloring book, with illustrations for each song. A fun and noble effort for a fun and noble cause. --Karin Snelson ... Read more

Asin: B00006L7QX
Subjects:  1. Pop    2. V/a Compilations   

Hitch up your I-Pods, egg-headed hipsters of the future: They Might Be Giants, the out-there band that files its sound under the banner of "Can't We All Just Get Along" is speaking your language. What they're saying is No!, but in a way that's weirdly welcoming, especially to anybody who's over 3 and has a hard drive. No!'s computer enhancements (animation, games, and a sing-along scroll bar) don't assign the strictly audio experience to the so-what pile, but at certain moments they seem necessary--how else are you supposed to decipher a song ("Violin") whose only words are "violin," "hippo," and the ticking off of fractional segments of George Washington's head? Of course, to try to make sense of the 17 tunes contained here may be to miss the point. While TMBG's lyrical and vocal hijinks can be off-putting to grownups prone to self-consciousness about not getting the joke, the generation No! takes aim at needs nothing in the way of validation. Thus the brilliance of baggage-free ditties like "Fibber Island," where the natives strum rubber guitars and sew buttons on cars, "John Lee Supertaster," a rock & roll fantasy following a hero with heightened senses of sweet and sour, and "I Am a Grocery Bag," detailing what's bumping around in brown paper after a trip to the market. With their triumph over the tube (TMBG took home a Grammy for the theme to Malcolm in the Middle and perform and wrote the intro to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), frontmen John Linnell and John Flansburgh have already infiltrated the family market, sort of. No! finds the band bending to a level lots of other giants might overlook, but without cramping up. Given the right reach, They Could Be Kiddie Icons. -Tammy La Gorce ... Read more

Features

• Enhanced

Asin: B000068C97
Subjects:  1. Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Sing-Along   

Jessica Harper stretches her big, broad voice over three musical styles--jazz, reggae, and calypso--on Inside Out for a sound, rich and lush, that's unmistakably hers, love it or leap right over it on your CD changer. Same rule applies to her lyrics, which leave listeners feeling as though they ought to have signed a waiver: spin this disc and plan to be gone awhile, in effect plucked from your own habitat and planted squarely in hers. Fortunately, it's a place most parents will find familiar, comfortably so. A bundle of songs on Inside Out, which plays like a postscript to 2000's Rhythm in My Shoes, bring us into a bustling household where the family pet is a shoe-chewing, jazz-ditty-inspiring "Little Brown Dog Named Joe" and the breakfast-table chitchat seems lifted from our own kitchens and set to pleasing rhythms. For instance, "Four Boys Named Jordan" opens with a little girl, Elizabeth, explaining her class-seating chart. Sprinkled around the room, sometimes in confusing clusters, are--you guessed it--four fellas who share the same name. On "Lizzy's Do's and Don't's" you can practically hear the disaffected drumming of fingertips--it's Lizzy's plea to her mom not to hide her candy up high and put nuts in the apple pie, among other exasperating day-to-day stuff. At times, the Harper household darts away from the daily grind to celebrate nothing special. "Happy Talk" reminds us, in reggae, to dream, and "Shout the Happiness" is hardly more than a joyous, island-style rant. Regardless of the mood, so much a part of this record, not one of the songs is weak musically. For young families in a funk, it's a friendly, highly original reminder to at least keep it light when you can't kick up your heels. --Tammy La Gorce ... Read more

Asin: B00005NHL4
Subjects:  1. Childrens    2. Educational    3. Pop    4. Sing-Along    5. Stories   

No matter where you enter Ralph's World, you can't help but want to fling the doors wide open: here, finally, is an artist who's made good on his promise to deliver kiddie songs that don't drive the big folks batty. The titular Ralph is Ralph Covert, a Chicago-based singer-songwriter with an animated, slightly Arlo Guthrie-ish voice and a knack for complete naturalness--not such a breeze when belting out songs whose lyrics call for ecstatic beep-beeping ("Drivin' in My Car") and choo-chooing ("Choo Choo Train"). That Covert is the debut artist on the just-launched Mini Fresh label, also based in Chicago, speaks volumes: the company is the kid's offshoot of Minty Fresh, the independent label responsible for bringing hip groups such as the Cardigans, Veruca Salt, Komeda, and Tahiti 80 to the grown-up masses. Ralph's World follows a similarly hip, "wow 'em with something different" formula. The pure pop of "All My Colors," made meaty by the inclusion of the mandolin, will find parents pumping the gas pedal on cross-town car trips; the hand jive of "Four Little Duckies" (featuring Dobro, banjo, and duck calls) defies anybody beyond drooling age to sit still. The folk-infused "Name Song," with its mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and an off-the-charts tempo, will leave you laughing, if your lips don't fall off first. For background vocals, "Ralph's World" relies on a rhythm-rich quartet known as the Kids, who supply the record its party-on vibe. This is a CD that leaves no listener behind, lacks pretension, and, most important, will lead jaded parents to believe that sharing quality music with their kids isn't a lost cause. --Tammy La Gorce ... Read more

Asin: B0000589F7
Subjects:  1. Children's Folk    2. Childrens    3. Pop    4. Sing-Along   

This anthology of children-related tracks originates from the globally conscious Putamayo Records catalog. Artists from Africa (Senegal's Touré Kunda, Congo's Ricardo Lemvo), Europe (France's Manu Chao), the Caribbean (Jamaica's Cedella Marley Booker), North America (Buckwheat Zydeco and Eric Bibb from the U.S.; Canada's Teresa Doyle), South America (Brazil's Nazaré Pereira), and Australia (Trevor Adamson) offer tracks, and while the styles and moods vary, the album gels excellently. Even if the multicontinent angle strikes you as too catholic, it bears reiterating that this is a "playground" session, a collection that begins with a Senegalese in-line dance and continues through "Mardi Gras Mambo," a bongo-playing French monkey, and much more. And while the songs are playful, there's nothing in the way of tossed-off music. It's all first-rate, with the artists at the top of their games.--Andrew Bartlett ... Read more

Asin: B00000JT4P
Subjects:  1. Childrens    2. Pop   

In John Lithgow's most memorable roles, he's played the outsider: the transsexual former football player in The World According to Garp, the alien in Third Rock from the Sun. On Singin' in the Bathtub, he puts the same aspect of his character that's made him successful in those roles--the slightly-out-of-touch wonder at the obvious--to work on 14 children's songs. Backed by a big band (and the occasional banjo or musical saw), Lithgow takes on topics from multiple births (the Alice in Wonderland-esque "Triplets"), the alphabet ("You're Adorable, A" which recalls Really Rosie's "Alligators All Around"), and a veritable menagerie ("The Gnu Song," "I Had a Rooster," "The Hippopotamus Song," and "The Inchworm"). He kicks off the title song with a reminder to "Grab your ducky, grab your toy boat--let's make this fun!" It's a triumph that he manages to do so for the entire album; but be warned--Lithgow's energy level is tough to keep up with, and you might find yourself exhausted long before the album ends. --Randy Silver ... Read more

Asin: B00000I8A3
Subjects:  1. Childrens    2. Pop