Review In Brief: Close Your Eyes - Josephine Cameron

Josephine Cameron's 2005 release Close Your Eyes isn't really a kids' music album, but at its core it's an album of lullabies both traditional and original, and that's enough to a merit a review here. Based in Maine, singer-songwriter Cameron has a winsome voice reminiscent of Susanna Hoffs -- it's not my perfect voice for lullabies, but Cameron's phrasing and the understated jazzy instrumentals (piano, a little guitar, occasional drums) serve the songs nicely. The CD starts out a bit too loud and emphatic for proper lullabying, though Cameron's duet with Anna Vodicka on a medley of All Night All Day/Swing Low (Sweet Chariot) is enjoyable nonetheless. Starting with track #5, "Dream a Little Dream," however, Cameron puts together a mellow set of melodies, concluding with a lovely wordless "Lullaby" (co-written by Cameron and her producer Anthony Walton). (You can here clips of most tracks here and of the title track here.) Close Your Eyes is a nice choice and recommended for listeners seeking a lullabies album that avoids the standard fare and arrangements.

Top Five Lullabies I Actually Sing

Yeah, there are a whole bunch of lullabies out there, but there only about five I sing on a regular basis.

5. You Are My Sunshine -- Not the original version (check out the O Brother, Where Are Thou? soundtrack for a nice version of that), but the shorter version on the Songs For Wiggleworms disc. It's much more loving and doesn't include the lyric "You have shattered all my dreams," which I frankly think is a bit of a downer, lullaby-wise.
4. Wake Up, by the Arcade Fire -- Just kidding.
4. All The Pretty Little Horses -- A sweet melody; I try to remember that it doesn't matter if I can't remember what order "blacks," "bays," "dapples," and "grays" go in.
3. Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star -- An easy melody, simple words (except that nobody -- including me -- can remember anything other than the first verse. There are something like four or five verses.)
2. Brahms' Lullaby -- Which we all call the "doo doo doo" song. For fun with older kids, ask them to sing it in the style of animals. ("Quack quack quaaaaack, quack quack quaaaack...")
1. Skidamarink -- A bit uptempo for a lullaby, but it's a fun melody, easy lyrics, and even offers freedom to solo. Love this song.

There are lots of lullabies I like to hear (e.g., "The Water Is Wide"), but unless the melody and lyrics are both super easy, they are just unlikely to be sung in actual nurseries...

Review: Lullabies: A Songbook Companion - Baird, et a

Most lullaby CDs are a little bit painful for the parents to listen to. Cheesy instrumentation and American Idol-style over-emoting. Not to mention the same ten songs on each CD. There's only so many ways you can sing "All the Pretty Little Horses." (Or at least there are only so many ways I've heard.)

Thankfully the purpose of most lullaby CDs is such that we parents will not listen to them. But there are times, especially early on in a baby's life, when a little lullaby background music is nice for nursings or bottle-feedings.

So the collection from New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled Lullabies: A Songbook Companion came as a welcome relief from the other poor lullaby CDs I avidly bought before our first child's arrival. The album is a family affair -- parents Richard Kapp (piano) and Madeline Kapp (vocals) and daughters Julianne Baird (vocals) and Mela Tenenbaum (violin and viola). So you have classically-trained musicians playing real instruments and knowing when that over-emoting goes so far. (It's on here, but it's kept mostly in check.)

And when you have 35 tracks on the CD, clearly there will be a few tracks that will be new to you. The selection reaches across the globe ("Fais Dodo," "Suo Gan") and includes some classical instrumental tracks (such as Schumann's "Traumerei") that may very well be the most relaxing and sleep-inducing on the album.

The CD is available either on its own or accompanying a book with assorted child-related art from the Museum's collection and the sheet music. The book also gives the briefest of backgrounds on each song; such descriptions are omitted from the CD's liner notes. Both are available through the Museum itself or online retailers. If you're looking for a lullaby-related gift for parents-to-be, you need look no further than this CD. They may even be listening to it themselves long after their little one is sleeping through the night.

Review: Listen Learn and Grow Lullabies - Various Artists

With these Zooglobble reviews, I've focused on, for lack of a better word, "daytime" CDs. They're generally peppy, or a little bit folky, and definitely candidates for, well, the car. You know, you listen to the CD at home. You listen to it on the airplane. You listen to it in the car. If a CD can stand up to that repeated (ab)use, then there is definite merit to the album.

I've not talked about "lullaby" CDs because, by definition, neither parents nor kids should be actively listening to a lot of these CDs. The parents should be out of the room and the kids, well, they should be sleeping. They're probably not, of course, but it's nice to pretend, no? Whatever the case, kids are definitely not begging to "play that song again!" when referring to Brahms' "Lullaby."

But good music is good music, no matter when it's played. And my wife and I heard quite a few of these CDs when (she) nursed or (I) gave a bottle to our daughter.

The first thing you should know about lullabies on CD is that there are many CDs that have "lullaby" or "sleepytime" in the title that have no business being used during nap time or nighttime. Next to the "Mozart effect," it's probably the most-overused phrase in kids' music. (Next thing you know, they'll be advertising how these CDs have Bluetooth technology.) Just because the CD has music by Mozart doesn’t necessarily mean that it'll be calming and soothing during naps or feedings.

Naxos is a "budget classical" label and has a CD entitled Listen Learn and Grow Lullabies. The CD advertises that "each selection [on the CD] has been specifically chosen for its soothing and tranquil qualities," and while that sounds like a bit of marketing hoo-hah, this is a pretty "soothing and tranquil" CD. Because these are pulled from Naxos' other recordings, they avoid the saccharine nature of a lot of kids' CDs. You'll recognize the first couple selections ("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and the aforementioned "Lullaby") by name and some others by melody, but others will likely be completely new to you. They are, however, almost uniformly pleasing to the ear.

While marketed as a "lullaby" CD, nothing except the cultural knowledge of the first couple songs requires pigeonholing this CD as just for kids. Naxos' huge catalog means that it'll be hit or miss as to whether you can find it in your local music store; they're certainly available online.

If I had to pick just one lullaby CD that I would actually use for a child, Listen Learn and Grow Lullabies would be the one.