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."
2. (tie) Frances England | Lunch Money | Recess Monkey
Mind of My Own | Original Friend | FLYING!
[Review | Review |
Review]
"One of the key charms of England's first two albums was the lo-fi intimacy England achieved that fit her folky sound. But if on those albums she was willing to make the recordings be akin to a secret shared between friends, on the new album she's a proud 4-year-old, sharing the news with all the world."
"Original Friend is every bit as "open book" as its predecessor Dizzy, but this time around songwriter Molly Ledford's subject is friendship. Friendship temporarily lost and then regained (the strings-assisted 1-minute opener "Friends Again"); friends who are awesome (the title track, and a prototypical Lunch Money indie-pop song); friends willing to imagine with you (the pop-by-way-of-circus-music "Getaway Car")."
"At this point the band writes succinctly
And perhaps a little distinctly
There's almost no fluff
Or extraneous stuff
The melodies simply just hit me."

5. (tie) The Hipwaders | Dan Zanes and Friends
Golden State | Little Nut Tree
[Review | [Review]
"Where are the albums for kids too old for Laurie Berkner but not ready for Lady Gaga? This year's best album for that age group is the latest record from the Bay Area band The Hipwaders. It's called The Golden State, and as you might guess from the title, it's a big, sunny power-pop embrace of their homestate..."
"So, it was worth the wait, friends... It's a joyful album meant for listening and dancing and singing along to -- in other words, a classic Dan Zanes album and one of the best kids music albums of the year."

7. (tie) Cat and a Bird | Lori Henriques
Cat and a Bird | Outside My Door
[Review | Review]
"Cat and a Bird is fairly new to the scene -- the band's website isn't even set up as of this writing. But their self-titled debut bristles with an energy and self-assurance that pays dividends. Their sound -- mixing elements of folk, rock, electronic beats, and gypsy violin -- sometimes sounds both 100 years old and from 100 years in the future."
"It's a Broadway (or perhaps off-Broadway) musical waiting to be made, or perhaps the subject of the first kids' music-themed episode of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, or a Randy Newman album consisting of pleasant narrators."

9. (tie) Caspar Babypants | Holly Throsby
This Is Fun! | See!
[Review]
[Review]
"The title suggests that Ballew is finally feeling comfortable in this his new skin of family entertainer. And while you never would've known that he was uncomfortable after listening to his first two tons-of-fun disks, it is a clue that Ballew has begun to figure out his calling. That calling? Focusing on preschool-aged kids and younger." [Note: Yeah, I know. Two spots in the Top 10. I almost thought of limiting CB to just one spot on the list. But that didn't seem fair to this album, which was nearly as good as its successor.]
"One of most captivating family music albums I've heard this year. Recorded at an old church south of Sydney, the album kicks off with the sound of a horn heard off the coast as the intro to "Putt Putt," a gentle tune about going out into the ocean with a small motor boat. From there, the album moves to "Fish and Mice," which starts out with what sounds like a Casio drum keyboard and eventually leads to an infectious sing-along chorus with a bunch of kids singing interjections ("Fish!"... "Bike!"). This looseness in musical production is carried on throughout the album."

9 (tie, continued). The Deedle Deedle Dees
Strange Dees, Indeed
[Review]
From here on out I'm just going to post links to reviews -- if you want to read more about the fine albums on the rest of the list, the links are there for your enjoyment and edification. But I do want to single out the new album from the Dees.

Every year, the hardest part of drawing up my Fids & Kamily list is not picking out my favorite. Oddly enough, that's been pretty easy over the years. No, it's picking out #10 in the list. Because there is inevitably at least one album (if not more) that gets excluded that you're wondering exactly how it didn't make the list. This year that album is the Dees' Strange Dees, Indeed. If you'd asked me on another day, I might have preferred it to Caspar or See! (or decided there should only be one CB album in that list). So even though it didn't make my F&K ballot, it's tied with those two albums above in my mind. It's woolly and weird, just like the Dees themselves, and I mean that in the best way.

12. Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke
Hey Pepito! EP
[Review]
If this had been 12 songs long instead of 6, it probably would be at #6 instead of #12.

13. The Thinkers
Oh Zoooty!
[Review]
Goofy, playful, and imaginative indie-pop.

14. Billy Kelly
Family Garden
[Review]
Best known for his utterly silly songs, Kelly plays it relatively straight on his latest album... and I still like it.

15. Beethoven's Wig
Sing Along Piano Classics
[Review]
The long-running series applying humorous lyrics to classical music, er, classics is reinvigorated.

16. (tie) Papa Crow | Chuck Cheesman
Things That Roar | Dancing with No Shoes On
[review]
I reviewed these two folk albums together, and while I like them both for different reasons, I like them both a lot.

18. The Jimmies
Practically Ridiculous
[Review]
I'll say it again -- why does Ashley Albert not have a TV show of her own yet?

19. Gustafer Yellowgold
Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock
[Review]
This ranking is just for the music itself, which for several years now has been consistently good. This could go on for many more years.

20. (tie) Ellia Jenkins | Biscuit Brothers
A Life of Song | Get Up and Go!
[Review | Review]
Ella Jenkins is a living legend, while Austin's Biscuit Brothers are merely well-loved by a number of folks. But both do a great job in helping kids develop a lifelong love for music.

22. Various Artists
I Love: Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow
[Review]
There are some gorgeous (and fun) songs on this song-for-song remake of a kids' country album classic.

23. Brady Rymer
Love Me for Who I Am
[Review]
The rare album targeted at (or inspired by) a small group (in this case, kids with alternative learning styles who have autism, Asperger's, etc.) that completely transcends that to speak to all listeners.

24. The Not-Its!
Tag, You're It!
[Review]
Another blast of pop-punk from the best-dressed band in kids' music.

25. Alastair Moock
These Are My Friends
[Review]
One sign of how vibrant the kids' music scene is right now is that this album, squeaking in on this list at #25, could very well have made my Top 10 list from 2006.

Best Kids Music 2011: Top 10 Album Packages

It was a little harder this year picking out 10 favorite album packages in my review of the best kids music of 2011. Not because design is getting worse, but because I am slowly entering the 21st century when it comes to reviewing music.

Which means accepting electronic versions of albums in lieu of the physical CD.

Now this isn't a case of asking you kids to get off my damn lawn. Really, I'm fine with it -- while I prefer the physical product (if only because I tend to listen to music sooner that way), I understand why mp3s are easier, especially for the artist. And while receiving the slim jackets that just consist of the front and back cover and the CD mean I don't get all of the lovely album art or have lyrics handy when listening, when you have something like 1,000 or CDs in boxes, there is a certain allure in having those slim packages.

And it should be noted that the primary focus, of course, is the music encoded in the mp3s or tucked away in those slim packages. Caspar Babypants CDs (which do feature cute cover art from Kate Endle) come in slim packages -- they could come wrapped in newspapers and I'd be overjoyed to get them to listen to the music inside. But an attractive package can sometimes help break down the barriers to listening to kids music for people new to the genre who think that it's still cheap and chintzy.

This list is also a little bit like Wheel of Fortune. (Hunh?) Remember how on the final bonus round puzzle the finalist used to get to choose a few letters which (if present) would be turned by Vanna? Yeah, well everybody ended up picking "E" and "T" and "S" and other common letters. So now they automatically show those letters (along with "R," "N," and "L") and the finalist picks other letters.

I sort of feel like Smithsonian Folkways and Putumayo and Dan Zanes are sort of like the "E" and "T" and "S" of album packaging -- you're always going to get quality work for them. I'd probably be better off just eliminating them from consideration and picking, say, a Top 5.

Maybe next year. Anyway, with the caveat that it feels weird not putting Dan Zanes or Putumayo on this list (I'm sure they were lovely as always, but we received "slim" packages this time around not that I'm in any way complaining, I swear), here are my 10 favorite kids music album packages of 2011, listed in alphabetical order.

Lori Henriques
Outside My Door
It's probably unfair that Henriques' brother is Joel Henriques, proprietor of the most excellent Made By Joel website, which shares arts and crafts projects for children. But, it's important to take advantage of the talents you have in your midst, and the packaging features cute line drawings, the lyrics (important for Henriques' wordy songs), and recycled paper.

That looks lovely... just as the rest of these disks do...
The Hipwaders
Golden State
One of the entries on this list is a collection of disks that I thought presented an attractive, simple package. The latest album package from the California trio is just as simple, what earns it its own mention on this list is its gorgeous album art by Brian Clarke. It so perfectly matches the sunny West Coast vibe of the excellent music inside that you could be forgiven for thinking the album art came first and the Hipwaders recorded an album as its soundtrack.

Ella Jenkins
A Life of Song
As always, a particular strength of Smithsonian Folkways' releases is the care and dedication they put into their liner notes. (Full disclosure: I've contributed an essay to one of their previous family releases.) One would hope that an album entitled A Life of Song from living legend Ella Jenkins would have detailed notes, and the liner notes for the album do not disappoint. A brief introductory essay from Jenkins herself, a short but elegant biography, and notes and lyrics for every song, it's a fittingly detailed complement to what is in essence a musical biographical sketch.

Lunch Money
Original Friend
I'm biased -- I like illustrator Brandon Reese's work so much, I had him design this site's logo. And the South Carolina trio Lunch Money has been dedicated to good design (album-wise and otherwise) from the begin. So it wasn't much of a surprise that this album (the second of Lunch Money's that Reese has provided the artwork for) was so lovely. From a purely visual enjoyment standpoint, this is probably my favorite album of the year.

The Not-Its
Tag, You're It!
While not as detailed, perhaps, as Original Friend, the Seattle band the Not-Its! have created a very distinctive visual style -- their visual brand, as it were -- from the very beginning. And while they employed a different artist to do their cover artwork this time around, it still looks very "Not-Its!" to me. Which is a Good Thing.

Recess Monkey
FLYING!
Another band who's had a distinctive visual style almost from the beginning, the Seattle trio (must be something about trios... or Seattle... that lends itself to good album artwork and packaging) utilized the services of Jarrett J. Krosoczka to provide some of the artwork for their superhero-themed album, creating a whole comic strip to accompany the title track (and its album-ending reprise).

Chip Taylor and the Grandkids
Golden Kids Rules
If the Ella Jenkins album requires lots of background and detail because it's a musical biography, the Smithsonian Folkways people take a different approach on what is a very personal album from songwriter Taylor. Recorded with his kids and inspired by a family wedding, the album doesn't need technical notes -- instead, the liner notes feature personal reminisces from Taylor, an essay from his brother, actor Jon Voight, and gentle art direction.

Holly Throsby
See!
The album artwork has every bit of the DIY vibe of the music inside from the Australian singer-songwriter. A lovely cover photo, cute drawings of the animals mentioned on the album by Throsby herself, lyrics and chords -- it's just one of those packages that you can give to a person who thinks (not entirely without merit) that kids' music comes packaged in cheap cases with poor font selection and even worse Photoshopping to show that, yes, there's an alternative.

Shannon Wurst
Green & Growing
It's one thing to record an album of songs dedicated to sustainable agriculture and "green living" -- it's another thing to print the album "locally on recycled paper" with a tastefully simple set of notes inside. But it's another thing entirely to then ship it in "recycled material," as Wurst describes it on her website. To break the code, that "recycled material" is a sewn envelope made out of a paper grocery bag. It so stunned me that I still have the envelope -- I'm pretty sure it's the only CD envelope I've ever kept.

Laura Doherty (Shining Like a Star) / Frances England (Mind of My Own) / Billy Kelly (The Family Garden) / Alastair Moock (These Are My Friends) / Papa Crow (Things That Roar)
These are all fine examples of fairly simple album packages that present the music (all of it in these cases good) in the best possible light. Be they simple digipaks (paper with a plastic jewel case base) or eco-wallets (folded cardboard sleeves with a slot to slip the CD in), these five albums make the best of comparatively limited visual space to convey the important things about the music inside. Sometimes that's pictures, sometimes that's hand-drawn artwork, sometimes that's credits. But all five show that it's possible that good art direction is doable without breaking the bank.

Best Kids Music 2011: Top 10 Debuts

I'll kick off my review of the best kids music of 2011 with a look at the year's best debuts.

As was the case last year, we didn't know many of these artists a year ago (or if we did, we had no idea they had a kids music album in them). But these albums caught my ear fairly quickly and some of them even made my top albums of the year list.

I should note that, as I did last year, by using the word "debut," I'm assuming that this isn't the last family music album from each of these artists. Albums from Holly Throsby and Chip Taylor, for example, would've been considered for this list, but I've made the assumption that their family albums will be their sole foray into the genre. I would be happy to be proven wrong, next year or at any point in the future.

So here are ten debut kids music albums (listed alphabetically by artist) worth celebrating.

The Alphabeticians
Rock
Leading off this alphabetical list is this Portland, Oregon duo (Eric Levine and Jeff Inlay, AKA Mr. E. and Mr. Hoo) who trade in sharp, hook-filled guitar jangle-pop and slightly absurd lyrics. (Sample song title: "Eric Saw Peter Buck's Girlfriend and Then He Saw Peter Buck".) But then again, isn't looking at life through a child's eyes a little absurd once we've left our adult glasses on too long? Listen here.
Cat and a Bird
Cat and a Bird
Energetic gypsy-jazz from the future. Lyrics about the animal kingdom. They had me at "violin." The duo of Vasiliy Taranov and Emily Chimiak make folk music for people who think they don't like folk music, and on their debut they somehow manage to combine catchy songs with some nuggets of knowledge regarding the animal kingdom that even the parents might not know. They are called "Cat and a Bird," after all.

Lori Henriques
Outside My Door
Let me quote from my original review: "Outside My Door: Songs for Children of All Ages is unlike any kids' CD I've heard in a long time. It's a throwback to 1970s piano jazz, nothing but Henriques' voice and nimble piano work. It's inspired by Sesame Street, though the lyrics especially are a bit advanced for the preschoolers who are that show's target audience." It's also -- more importantly -- really good.

Caroline Herring
The Little House Songs
Why Caroline Herring and not, say, Holly Throsby? Because I'm pretty sure that folksinger Herring wants to continue making these albums based on children's books. Herring got a boost from a Kickstarter campaign to turn her songs chronicling the fade and rebirth of a tiny house into a full-length album. It's simple album, made with care, and, given its subject matter, covers a wider range of emotions than many albums for kids. If it's the only kids' album Herring makes, it's a fine piece of work. (But I'm hoping it's not her last.)

Johnny & Jason
Go,go... go, go, go!
Another sign (beyond the Alphabeticians and Portland-based Henriques) that the Portland kindie music scene is coalescing into one of the country's hot spots. The Portland duo of Johnny Keener and Jason Greene have a homegrown and hook-filled sound that sounds friendly to all ages. You can listen to the album here. This summer, I called it a "definitely a contender for one of the year's best debuts"; now I'll confirm it.

Mr. & Mrs. Muffins
The Adventures of Ms. Rabbit and Mr. Carrot / The Striped Ladybird
The Seattle duo also used a Kickstarter campaign, in this case to press the music from their two books, The Adventures of Ms. Rabbit and Mr. Carrot and The Striped Ladybird, onto vinyl. But you don't need a record player to listen to or enjoy the music -- the books and music are designed for 21st-century mediums like the iPad. Their breezy sounds could have been recorded 50 or 75 years ago, but they're just as lovely as background music for Skype-ing with Grandma.

Meadows
The Littlest Star
Composer Keith Kenniff and his wife Hollie Kenniff are in about a kajillion different musical projects -- for their latest, they give some traditional tunes (and a handful of originals) a spin around the block. Relaxed arrangements and vocals -- nothing is reinvented here, but sometimes you need a collection of classic kids' tunes that sound like they weren't on played on a keyboard in a brightly-colored plastic case.

Papa Crow
Things That Roar
An album from Michigan's Papa Crow, AKA Jeff Krebs, that proves that "hushed" isn't just an adjective that applies to female musicians. Inspired by folks like Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Zanes, Krebs turns in a quiet -- but not sleepy -- album of originals that sound great at any time of year, but especially with a sweater on, maybe sipping a cup of hot chocolate.

Mike Park
Smile
Mike Park isn't the first person to make punk music for the preschool set, but he probably has the nicest pedigree, being the bassist for Skankin' Pickle and releasing music from bands like the Alkaline Trio on his Asian Man Records label. This album is targeted right at the preschool set, focusing on basic concerns like counting and animals and jumping. (Hey, I think jumping is a useful skill for a future punk. Or just about anybody else.) Again, why include him and not Chip Taylor? Just a feeling that this isn't the last foray into kindie punk from Park.

The Thinkers
Oh Zoooty!
Super-fun, imaginative bouncy pop -- which is either a description of the Boston-NYC-based band's debut album or a fizzy soda from Japan. I'm going with the music. Will your kids laugh? Yes they will. Will they dance? Yes they will. There's been a lot of radio silence from them since their summer tour, but I'm hoping we haven't heard the last of them.

A Small Nod from Small Magazine

There are times when I feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of music to listen to and develop opinions on -- these are the times when I search for a video featuring an animated cat to just move forward and create. So when the lovely magazine Small Magazine said they'd be featuring me in an upcoming issue and asked for 5 albums I'm digging right now, I was (a) flattered, and (b) eager to have a short, time-limited assignment.

So head here to find out about those five albums, three of which aren't even out yet, technically speaking. Of course, I should note that asking me to pick just five is very much a point in time snapshot, especially given the volume of music moving across my desk now -- if you asked me to make that list today, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look the same. But these five (including one debut) are all quality disks.

Best Kids Music 2010: Top 20 Albums

My final entry in my list of the best kids music of 2010 is my list of my favorite kids music albums of the year. (And by "year," again, I mean Nov. 1, 2009 through Oct. 31, 2010 release dates available to the general public.)

I do use the word "favorite" advisedly. I get what I'm guessing is close to 300 family music albums every year. I review maybe 20% of those (if that much), even picking out 20 means that some albums in my top 10% of favorite albums don't get listed. (No Ralph's World? No Moona Luna? No Essie Jain or Keller Williams? Albums I genuinely liked considerably? That's how hard it is at this point.) 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 albums, ranked from most favorite to a little less most favorite, that I (and we) most appreciated this year. (The top 10 reflects my Fids and Kamily ballot.)

1. Justin Roberts - Jungle Gym (review): Justin Roberts is starting to make family music reviewers look bad because his continued excellence leaves us scrambling to find new ways to write the same old thing -- how do we talk about his songcraft without repeating ourselves or draining all the enjoyment out of his music? How about this, then? Roberts is our generation's finest family music songwriter and Jungle Gym, his best album yet, is my favorite kids music album of the year.
2. Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke - Rise and Shine (review): I waited for this debut album for nearly three years after I first heard music from the New York/New Jersey area duo. It was worth the wait. It's joyful, tuneful, fanciful. Wilde's also designed a wonderful physical packaging for the album. It's been nearly a year since the album was released, and that's just too long.

3. The Pop Ups - Outside Voices (review): While KWMC's debut was three years in the making, a culmination of a long process, the arrival of Brooklyn's Pop Ups on the kids music scene was totally unexpected. I don't use this word often, but the reaction from some quarters (including, well, this one) was "rapturous," and for good reason. It seamlessly blended preschool-friendly topics with beats and sounds covering the past forty-plus years of popular music and filled in a gap in the kids music scene we didn't even know existed.

4. Elizabeth Mitchell - Sunny Day (review): Mitchell's fourth solo album for families was her second for Smithsonian Folkways and, I believe, her first recorded specifically for Folkways. To these ears the new album reflected a deliberate shift in her approach to making family music. Mitchell very much sees herself as part of Folkways long line of musicians who didn't see themselves so much as making music for people as much as making music with people. If you're listening and not joining in, making music of your own, then you're not getting quite all of it.

5. Recess Monkey -The Final Funktier (review): Are there any other superlatives I can heap upon the Seattle trio that I haven't already? Best hopscotchers I know? Best stuffed animal band manager in the business? They make it hard. The new album features another solid collection of songs from a band that already has a greatest hits album's worth of solid songs. They show no signs of slowing down, which is good news for families everywhere.

6. Billy Kelly -Is This Some Kind of Joke? (review): I have not laughed louder at any album this year than at Kelly's follow-up to Thank You For Joining the Happy Club. Kelly was working on a more typical kids music album when, as if possessed by one of the aliens he sings about on the album, he was motivated to make this "musical comedy album" targeted at a slightly older audience. Now, most of Kelly's songs can already be classified as "musical comedy," but here he just dials up the comedy a little bit more. I have never looked at cardboard boxes the same way.

7. (tie) Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem - Ranky Tanky (review): As I think back on this album, what I'm most struck by is that I didn't think Arbo and her bandmates had put out an album that fully captured the vibrancy of this band. Yes -- what I'm saying is that my seventh favorite album of the year, an album that is the musical descendent of Dan Zanes, had room for improvement. I don't know when they'll be making another album specifically for families, but let me make it clear -- I really, really, really hope they do.

7. (tie) Randy Kaplan - The Kids Are All Id (review): Kaplan is a raconteur, a weaver of stories. He makes old songs sound new and new songs sound timeless. He's got a slightly nasally voice that can adapt to any number of different characters but sounds beautfiul on the (few) times he's asked to break it out. He has many personalities, and for that I'm very grateful.

9. Various Artists - Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti (review): Family music from family musicians, proceeds benefiting Haitian relief efforts? It could've been middling. I mean, how many times have bought a benefit album and found that the music just didn't hold up its end of the bargain? You'd've been better off just sending the charity a tax-deductible $10 check and spending the extra $5 on an EP from your favorite band. Not this time. The accolades are all deserved -- it's a great idea, a great cause, and a great album. Best compilation of the years, (many) hands down.

10. Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang - Clap Your Hands (review): Most of the albums on this list target older kids; to her credit, Gwendolyn has spent the family-music side of her career pretty much ignoring the first graders and instead focusing on those first graders' younger siblings. For the most part, her albums have passed under the radar, which is a shame, because for that audience (and their parents), her songs are a perfect fit. It's her best album yet.

11. (tie) Caspar Babypants - More Please! (review) / Dean Jones with the Felice Brothers - Rock Paper Scissors (review) / Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - Underground Playground (review): The hardest decision point of these lists every year is the #10 slot in my Fids and Kamily list. If you'd asked me at a different time, any of these three albums might be sitting at #10 instead. Three very different albums, one relaxing and bouncy, one chaotic and tender, one thumping and soaring. All very good.

14. The Deedle Deedle Dees - American History + Rock 'N' Roll = Deedle Deedle Dees (review) / Okee Dokee Brothers - Take It Outside (review): I didn't place these two bands together just because they're competing for the "most 'eeee' sounds in a band name" title. I placed 'em together because they're both bands taking slightly idiosyncratic approaches to their music (the Dees, history; Okee Dokees, bluegrass). And because both albums were lots of fun. That seems like enough.

16. (tie) Not-Its - Time Out To Rock (review) / Candy Band - High Five (review) / Renee and Jeremy - C'mon (review): These three bands released new albums that didn't tinker (much) with the fomula that worked for them on their prior albums. (Maybe R&J, but only in terms of tempo, really). Power-pop, proto-punk, and blissed-out harmonies/beats -- all fabulous.

Various Artists - Jazz Playground (review): My favorite of the Putumayo Kids "Playground" disks. It deftly mixes new and old, English and non-English, traditional and not-totally-traditional for an excellent blend of music. In a year which suggested that "jazz for kids" was making a comeback, this was my favorite jazz disk of the year.

20. (tie) Haley Bonar - Sing With Me (review) / Lucky Diaz - Luckiest Adventure (review) / Salteens - Kid Songs (review): OK, I lied, these are my 22 favorite albums of the year, not 20. But these three EPs combined make for a pretty great 45 minutes of music. It'd be the weirdest, most schizophrenic kids music album ever, but with tons of fabulous songs. (For least whiplash, I'd probably listen to them in the inverse of the order listed here.)