Grammaropolis - Doctor Noize

Artist: Doctor Noize

Album: Grammaropolis

Age Range: 7 to 11

Description: Many have tried, few have succeeded. While the idea of Schoolhouse Rock might have seemed obvious, the fact there have been comparatively few albums that have effectively entertained while teaching a school subject means it wasn't so obvious after all. Doctor Noize (aka Cory Cullinan) partners with Coort Voorhees on this album (and app) for an entertaining spin through Grammaropolis, giving each major part of speech (e.g., nouns, adverbs, action verbs) their moment in the sun.

At their best, the songs are funny, catchy, and educational (even for a guy like me who thinks he knows more than he actually does about grammar). Highlights include the funky "Noun Town" and poppy title track. The tracks cover a wide range of musical styles, sometimes reaching "mini-musical" in scope ("Lights! Camera!! Action Verb!!!" clocks in at well over eight minutes); in one sitting, it can all be a little too much.  But in bite-sized pieces, it's lots of fun.  If you're teaching grammar in any way, this is highly recommended; for the rest of us, just parcel it out one or two songs at a time, like the old Schoolhouse Rock did on Saturday mornings.

[Disclosure: I was provided a copy of this album for possible review.]

Apple Apple - The Harmonica Pocket

Artist: The Harmonica Pocket

Album: Apple Apple

Age Range: 2 to 6

Description: Dreamy and moody, the latest album from Seattle-area duo The Harmonica Pocket is more muted than a lot of albums targeted at preschoolers.  Not downbeat, mind you, but any album that takes the major chord bluegrass standard "Turkey in the Straw" and slows it down and gives it a hypnotic non-major chord rewrite is not the album you'll use for your home-based dance party (or at least your wilder ones).  Instead, the 48-minute acoustic album (featuring help from Kindiependent friends Johnny Bregar, Jack Forman, and Caspar Babypants, among others) offers up subtler wordplay takes on standard toddler topics (moms, moons, and monkeys).  It's got a bit of sense of humor, too -- "Diaperman" is as sweet-smelling as its topic sometimes isn't.  Recommended.   (Listen to the album here.)

[Disclosure: I received a copy of the album for possible review.]

Circus of Fleas - fleaBITE

Artist: fleaBITE

Album: Circus of Fleas

Age Range: 4 to 8

Description: 21st-century vaudeville from the gently subversive folks behind cult kids-radio favorite Fatcat & Fishface.  (Well, cult in this hemisphere, at least -- F&F are better known in their native New Zealand.)  The concept of fleaBITE is that the songs are performed by, well, a band of fleas, but that pretty just much means the vocals all have a tiny, nasally sheen to them.

When a song about a sheep allergic to grass ("Shelley the Sheep") is one of the least odd tracks on the album, you know your family is in for an odd ride.  Not your typical guitar rock for fleaBITE; instead, echoes of Tin Pan Alley ragtime, samba, '60s organ-drenched pop, and ukulele undergird songs about dogs playing music, a very hungry spider, and the "Poo Tree."  Oh, yeah, there's the instrumental "Tiny Gargle" -- instrumental, I suppose, if you're willing to consider gargling an instrumental track.  There are definitely some tender moments ("Sweetie Pie" and "Ooby Gooby" come to mind), but if your family has had its fill of songs about brushing teeth and being kind to others all the time, this might be the antidote.  Recommended.  (Listen to the album here.)

[Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the album for possible review.]

Escalator - David Tobocman

Artist: David Tobocman

Album: Escalator

Age Range: 4 to 8

Description: Los Angeles-based Tobocman doesn't rewrite the kindie songbook on Escalator, his third kids music album, but adds at least a couple very good songs to it.  The title track is propulsive and a complete earworm, one of my favorite tracks of 2012.  "The Owie Song" features a goofy sing-along chorus that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Very Helpful Songs -- the song is silly but fun for all.  Several tracks ("Playin' on a Sunday," for example) have a wide-open SoCal feel that might see the parents having Eagles flashbacks, but Tobocman brings in other styles as well; Tobocman's musicianship is, as always, solid.  Listen to clips here.  Recommended.

Science Fair - Various Artists

Artist: Various Artists (Spare the Rock Records)

Album: Science Fair

Age Range: 5 to 10

Description: A kids' album, but one with ambitions.   Designed to raise awareness about the gender gap in science -- something happens between grade school and grad school -- the album succeeds that without forgetting that awareness-raising combined with dull music is pretty much a press release on a shiny disk.  A diverse set of musicians both kindie and kindie-friendly pitch in on a set of constant-surprising tracks.  Songs are both extroverted (the Nields' "Butterfly" and Wunmi's "Rainbow") and introverted (Frances England's "Goldilocks Zone" and Elizabeth Mitchell's recording of a Molly Ledford original, "Phytoplankton"), and typically focus on the questioning mindset of a scientist rather than nuts-and-bolts explanations of How Things Work.  Highly recommended.  (Listen to my NPR review here.)