Holiday Kids Music Reviews (2012 Edition)

There were fewer Christmas and holiday CDs released this holiday season, but those that were all will probably appeal to at least a few families.  Yes, it's Christmas Eve, but you can still download those albums in time, right?  (And there's always 2013.)

Renee & Jeremy - Sunny Christmas

If I had to pick just one holiday album for this season, I think this EP from the Los Angeles duo would be it.  Perhaps that's a function of one too many Christmases in a clime that sometimes lets you wear short sleeves while eating your figgy pudding.  As always, the duo are in fine vocal form on the five standards ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is the standout) and one original, the title track.

The Laurie Berkner Band - A Laurie Berkner Christmas

Berkner offers up the most traditional-sounding album, with fine arrangements throughout.  Having said that, given how you may hear many of these tracks multiple times any particular December day, the two best tracks here are the less-familiar "Children Go Where I Send Thee," a duet with Brady Rymer, and "Silent Night," which features Berkner and Elizabeth Mitchell, the two best female voices in kids music.

Mr. Richard & the Pound Hounds - Merry Christmas!

Florida-based Mr. Richard has much to be thankful for this holiday season -- his family's been battling some medical issues this year -- so not surprisingly, his new extended EP is a bouncy one.  A mix of Christmas standards and originals, my favorites are the jangly original "Up In My Christmas Tree" and the album-closing instrumental "Cantique de Noel" (aka "O Holy Night").

The Jimmies - Mama Said Nog You Out

This album's a year old, but it's no longer a Barnes & Noble exclusive.  So that means you can stop by your local, er, Amazon or iTunes and pick up a copy of Ashley's take on the season.  (Hint: there's no rendition of "O Holy Night" on this album -- this album's for the folks who like the mad rush of December.)  I liked the album last year, and I still like it this year.

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - Sing Songs of Christmas Cheer

Speaking of 2011 albums, I realized shortly after I published those reviews last year that I'd inadvertently excluded the extended EP from one of my favorite kids' bands (I think the album came out fairly late in the cycle as well).  In any case, the album is as goofy (and hard-rockin') as the rest of the duo's work -- "Angels We Have Heard On High" is epic in every sense of the word.

Dan Zanes - Christmas in Concord

I should also note that Dan Zanes' 2011 holiday EP has been expanded into an extended EP.  He adds a couple songs -- an original ("I'm Counting the Days (Until Christmas)") and a traditional spiritual ("Rise Up Shepherd and Follow" with Suzan-Lori Parks).  Though both are note, if you got the EP last year, neither track is a required addition.  Having said that, it was my favorite holiday album of 2011 (probably tied with the Key Wilde disk, and edging out the Jimmies disk), so if you don't have it already, it's worth picking up.

Big Bang Boom - The Holidays Are Here

I had to ask the title to these 5 songs (hence my original title, "untitled Christmas album"), but it's pretty good nonetheless.  As you would expect from the band and their cheeky attitude (see: "Santa Didn't Come Last Night"), there's no reverent rendition of centuries-old hymns, but it's generally tender and nostalgic.

Free Music Player for Myspace at ReverbNation.com

SpongeBob Squarepants - It's A SpongeBob Christmas Album

Yes.  SpongeBob Squarepants has a Christmas album.  (Why not?  Everybody else does.)  Here's the thing -- it's actually pretty good.  OK, the opening track sounds tacked on, but once you get past that, it's clear that more thought and care went into the album than was necessary.  Folks with no TVs (or senses of humor) won't appreciate it much, but it's more entertaining than I, not any big SpongeBob fan, expected.

Video: "Animal Alphabet" - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Yaaay!  A new video and a new song from Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke.  OK, the song's been around for a little while (if not generally available), but the video?  Definitely new.  Yes, the "animals representing the alphabet" thing has been done before, but even Sandra Boynton make a song out of hers.  (And Wilde's illustrations are every bit as cute.)

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - "Animal Alphabet" [YouTube]

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.

Christmas Songs 2011, Part II

Part 1 of my list of this year's Christmas songs for kids was out of date as soon as I hit "publish," because I realized that I'd forgotten Billy Kelly's video from Dear Santa Claus (review). Maybe I was distracted by the mindbending song. Or maybe I was just wondering if this video is Kelly's video resume for applying to direct Paranomal Activity 4: The Christmas Special.

Billy Kelly - "Glebells Jing" [YouTube]

I reviewed Rosie Thomas' album A Very Rosie Christmas a few years back -- it's pretty good. (Anyone who can take a Chipmunks song and turn it into something earns lots of bonus points.) Anyway, she's got a new holiday tune out -- I don't think it's quite as good as the 2008 album, but you may like it...

(Or just stream the whole holiday album here.)
Speaking of follow-ups to Christmas albums of years past, the Slugs and Bugs holiday album A Slugs and Bugs Christmas (review) has been reissued with a scripture reading and a new song, "Shepherd Dad." No, the song isn't about me (think about it...), it fits in within the religious songs of the disk as part of a production churches can put on using its music. If you're looking for secular Christmas music, this ain't it. But if that's not what you're looking for, I think you'll like this. Listen to it here.

Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke have released some fine holiday music in the past, and this year is no exception. The duo have a couple new songs out. There's "Christmas Time is Here," which actually is a gentle original tune, not a cover of the Vince Guaraldi classic (listen here). And then there's a cover of "Angels We Have Heard on High," which will have you and your kids singing "Gloooooooria" at the top of your classic rock/head-banging voices.

03 3. Angels We Have Heard On High by wildeclarke

Other notes:
-- Steve Weeks is offering up a free download of his song "Blizzard of '78" here.
-- You can download a new free track from Big Bang Boom, "That's Just Christmas," here.
-- Jeremy Plays Guitar also has a new, free holiday song available for download at his website. Not sure of the name, but worth a spin.

Finally, the socio-political implications of this song from Alastair Moock will go over the heads of younger elementary school students -- it's not a kids' song -- but in the tradition of songs like "The Elf's Lament" by Barenaked Ladies, Moock takes the point of view of Santa's helpers.

Alastair Moock - "Occupy Santa" [YouTube]

I'm leaving other stuff off the list, but that's OK, 'cause I know Part 3 will be coming next week.