Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Easy
If you are a person who has
always believed there should be more rap songs about dragons, mermaids, and
talking grasshoppers, then this is the CD for you. 23 Skidoo’s debut album,
“Easy,” deftly mixes reggae, bluegrass, and funk with classic hip hop beats,
and his own daughter Saki gets the best line on the album:
23
Skidoo: Yo, Saki. You got the juice?
Saki:
Man, I’ve got more rhymes than Dr. Seuss.
Peter Alsop, Uh-Oh
With sing-a-long classics
like "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and the ABCs, listening to Uh-Oh may just take you back to your own childhood days. But be
warned: Peter Alsop is not trying to make a crossover album for kids and
parents alike. This is straight up kid’s music, so you may get tired of hearing,
I don’t know, “Poop Goes the Weasel,” for the forty-second time.
Rocknocerous, Pink
At their best, these sunny
tunes take tot rock to a whole new level, like on the R.E.M.- esque
“Playground” and the lovely “Lucky Lindy.” However, some of their songs miss
the mark by veering into all-too-familiar kid’s music territory.
Daddy A Go Go, Come On, Get Happy
If the Beach Boys and Jimmy
Buffet got together to make an album for kids, it would probably sound a little
like this one. The songs are fun, singable, and certainly appealing to
children, but they all seem to hit the same overtly cheerful note. Listening to
“Come On, Get Happy,” is like spending time with a deeply and persistently
perky friend: best done in small doses.
Various, Putamayo Kids Presents European Playground
No worries if your kids
aren’t as well-traveled as Suri or Maddox: the fifteen songs on this album
represent sixteen countries and range from Scottish folk to Scandinavian pop to
Belgian quasi-rap. Cheerful in a mellow way, this is one holds up to repeated
listenings, and will even teach your kids such useful foreign phrases as “Stop
that little kangaroo before it jumps off again!”
Abby and the Pipsqueaks, Abby and the Pipsqueaks
Abby and I clearly have a
difference of opinion over whether or not sirens and train whistles -- the
world’s most annoying sounds -- should be used in songs.
Reviews by Lindsay Armstrong.
Earlier Today: Our Childless Interns Review Your Kid's Music, Part 1
Read more from Babble's Music and Video
Issue.
