Song of the Day: One Little Cookie - Justin Roberts

Justin Roberts had his first hit, "Yellow Bus," off his 2001 album of the same name. But my favorite track on Yellow Bus has always been "One Little Cookie," deep into the album.

"One eye watchin' the kitchen door / one hand reachin' for the cookie jar / I heard this voice from up above / Showerin' down these words of love."

And from there proceeds an ever-increasing fit of self-rationalization from the narrator as he eventually eats, uh, ten cookies. He knows he shouldn't, but can't stop himself. Kids will laugh, recognizing the feelings of exhilaration from doing something they know they're not supposed to. Parents will laugh, albeit a little more ruefully. The music, powered by the guitar and drums and Hammond organ, gets increasingly loud and insistent, dovetailing nicely with the narrator's ever-quickening swiping of the cookies. It's a nice match of music and lyrics.

Maybe it's the propulsive beat, but the song triggers thoughts in me of Spoon's "Sister Jack," an urgent song that only gets more urgent as the song progresses.

Roberts can turn out great power-pop songs. This is one of them.

Go here to see a video for "One Little Cookie."
Go here to get to a video for "Sister Jack."

Whose Noggin Is That?

We recently received a copy of Brady Rymer's latest CD, Every Day Is A Birthday, and the first thing my wife said when she saw the CD was,

"Wow. Do we have any other kids' CDs with the artist's actual picture on the cover?"

This amused me, because it was the exact same thought I had the first time I saw a picture of the cover.

And, really, if you think about it, most children's music artists do not have a particularly large presence on their album covers. Ralph's World? Even on his latest CD Green Gorilla, Monster & Me -- Ralph is a tiny, animated man. Dan Zanes? Slightly less tiny, slightly less animated. Laurie Berkner? A little less tiny than Dan, a little less animated. And that's pretty much where the progression ends. (I guess Laurie's DVD has her featured a little more prominently.)

Progress in the children's music world is typically on the level of Justin Roberts' Meltdown! CD, in which the animated child on his fifth kids album now looks much more Justin-like.

Frankly, this probably doesn't matter much. This industry is probably significantly different than "adult" CDs, in which mass marketed CDs almost always come with the artist's picture prominently displayed (think of rap or country CDs, or U2 or the Rolling Stones). And even though the faces aren't there, there's often a graphical consistency to the cover art.

But with the increasing folding in of "serious" children's music artists such as Berkner, Zanes, and Covert into major record distribution, it wouldn't be surprising to see more faces and fewer cartoons on CD covers.

This Is An Imaginary Post

So last night, my nighttime reading with my daughter included Kevin Henkes' Jessica, which revolves around a kindergartner's imaginary friend.

And this morning, I heard a track off of Justin Roberts' Meltdown! called "Our Imaginary Rhino," which revolves around a youngster's (perhaps in kindergarten, perhaps not) imaginary rhino, natch. It's a catchy power-pop song with a few "na-na-nas" to make for enjoyable singalong action.

You'll be able to listen to samples of every song at Amazon next week when the album is released; for now go here to listen to samples of a half-dozen songs plus a full version of "My Brother Did It," another pleasing power-pop song.

(Truth be told, I prefer Henkes' books about mice to his books about, gasp, real people. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse is note-perfect, if books can indeed be note-perfect.)

News: Justin Roberts To Release Meltdown!, Two More Albums

It's not that I'm so excited about the new Justin Roberts record, but his new CD Meltdown! does include the exclamation point at the end of the title. Judging by the search engine results that bring people to this website, there's definitely some interest in finding out more about the CD. Well, the CD now has a March 21, 2006 release date, album cover art, and track listing. (See the cover art and track listing here.)

Another interesting thing you can find out by going to the above link is that Roberts has released another couple albums with his musical partner Liam Davis. Why Not Sea Monsters: Songs from the Hebrew Scriptures and Why Not Sea Monsters: Songs from the New Testament are the albums -- the titles seem fairly explanatory. (My favorite song title from the two CDs? "Nothing Much in Tarshish.") Although part of the website indicates the CDs were released in December 2005, the individual album pages don't actually allow you to, er, order the CDs, so perhaps that's jumping the gun a bit.

In any case, Justin Roberts fans (and I'm one of them) will have a lot of Roberts music to choose from in 2006.

News: Justin Roberts Preparing Early 2006 Release

There was a nice little article in Friday's Chicago Tribune on Justin Roberts' approach to preparing for a concert. Since he often sings in the morning, he "relies heavily on caffeine, starting his morning with a bowl of cereal with soy milk and several shots of espresso," a pre-concert routine that is, I suspect, not that of a typical rocker's.

The article notes that he's currently recording songs for his next album, Meltdown!, for an early 2006 release.