Best Kids Music of 2014: A Summary

Well, it's been a week of looking at my favorite music for families from the past year. For those of you who have missed the breathless reviews on Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, or with your favorite YouTuber (Stephen Colbert no doubt thought about bringing back The Colbert Report just to talk with me), well, OK, there were no breathless reviews.

But I think people liked the effort. I will note, however, that, based on a quick review of the posts (albums, debuts, singles, and videos), that there were maybe 48 artists represented in my lists. That sounds like a lot -- it is a lot! -- but it's also at most 20% of the kids music I heard. There are plenty of artists making good music for kids that just didn't make my list. I like to think that I've got a reasonably broad set of tastes, but I've also strongly believed that having a distinctive point of view regarding music has helped make this site worthwhile. I wouldn't want to publish a list with 148 artists -- that would be so broad as to be useless -- but would I appreciate artists 49 through 60 noticeably less than whomever artist 48 is? No.

I guess what I'm saying is, there's lots of great music out there, even if they're not on one of these lists. So, enjoy the lists, and hopefully you discover something new (or rediscover an old favorite of your family's).

Best Kids Music of 2014: Top 10 Debuts

Continuing on with my look back at 2014 (or Oct. 1, 2013 though Sept. 30, 2014, or thereabouts), let's turn our attention to debuts.

The notion of "debut" is a difficult one, particularly in kids music, because one often hears music from artists who've been around for a long time recording music for adults who dip their toes into the kiddie pool. Is that a debut? My answer has tended to be "no." So albums from artists like The Short Films and Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir, albums I clearly loved, weren't considered for this list, because I got no sense that those artists viewed those albums as the start of a career (or even career sideline) making music for families. Same goes for albums by Luscious Jackson, Zee Avi, and MC Frontalot.

Or what do you do about artists like Dan Flannery and Steve Lee, who recorded kids' albums already with the Flannery Brothers and, er, Steve Lee? Well, you disqualify albums recorded as Danny Lion and Yumzah which would've potentially made this list. And Rainbow Beast? I just didn't know what to do with that group of folks recording music written by a rotating set of kids. So I omitted them.

Luckily, the list of ten albums below are still fine introductions to kids music from artists I've got a pretty good feeling might come back for round 2 -- at the very least they went to the trouble of creating a new band, right? So here are my top 10 favorite debuts, listed alphabetically.

Bears and Lions - We're a Club in the Woods (review) - "Jangly, southern-fried guitar-pop songs about jumping out of airplanes, man's best friend, and PAN! CAKE! SWEEP! STAKES! (Just listen to "Pancakes" all the way through, trust me.)"

Edie Carey & Sarah Sample - 'Til the Morning: Lullabies & Songs of Comfort (review) - " 'Til the Morning is an album of love songs, just like all lullaby albums should be, and beyond that it also has a feeling of things fitting just so, its songs of comfort also comfortable."

Django Jones - D is for Django (review) - "Songs like "Counterpoint," which manages to be about counterpoint the musical term and counterpoint the metaphorical concept while being mostly in counterpoint, demonstrate heart and humor and (natch) tight harmonies."

Jelly of the Month Club - Introducing… (review) - "Some songs like "Tell Someone" contain lessons of a sort, but that's a song that namechecks Cheryl Ladd and Chaka Khan, to name a few, so clearly there's a playfulness that cuts through any overt "Learn. This." approach."

Walter Martin - We're All Young Together (review) - "Whatever cool-points Martin may have lost by wadding into the kid's music world, the playful and sweet nature of this new album shows he doesn't care one bit. He feels very much at home."

Red Yarn - The Deep Woods (review) - '"Mr. Rabbit" has an almost desperate urgency while "The Fox," which brings together "The Fox," "Midnight Special," and "Go Tell Aunty Rhody," is absolutely gorgeous. This is a folk revival, in all the many meanings of the word "revival."'

Andres Salguero - ¡Uno, Dos, Tres con Andrés! (review) - "From "Los Colores" (a mellow bachata, popularized in the Dominican Republic) to "La Clave" (a percussion-driven -- of course -- Cuban/Puerto Rican salsa tune), Salguero samples Latin America's rich musical heritage."

Ben Tatar and the Tatar Tots - Food! (review) - "But like a good bowl of mac'n'cheese, when done right, this style of kids music can be very satisfying. The multi-instrumentalist Tatar plays in a number of bands throughout Chicago, and the level of production is excellent, with Tatar handling a lot of duties, but also bringing in his friends to fill out the sound."

Danny Weinkauf - No School Today (review) - "You don't have to be a They Might Be Giants fan to appreciate this album (though TMBG fans are most likely to go nuts for this), just a fan of nicely-crafted, occasionally goofy, kid-pop."

Whirlygigs - Greetings from Cloud 9 (review) - "Greetings from Cloud 9 definitely has a retro sound, but it's not burnt in amber, either. For families looking for a mellower kindie sound reminiscent of those Taj Mahal records (or perhaps a little bit like fellow New Englander Alastair Moock), this Whirlygigs album is worth exploring."

Best Kids Music of 2014: Top 30 Albums

If I were more disciplined about my writing, I'd have written this three months ago when people were thinking about holiday gift lists rather than, well, now. The advantage is that, rather than giving you a "hot take" about music that I might regret later, I can let a few weeks or months go by and make sure I'm not forgetting (or including) something time has given me more perspective on.

Given that it is approaching the end of February, I think I'll skip the think pieces, the "what does it all mean" text and jump right into the list. As always, my year-end best-of list matches the Fids and Kamily year -- that is to say, from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014. So some good albums from the last 3 months [waves at Lori Henriques] will just have to wait for next year's list.

One final comment: I originally titled this the "Top 25 Albums" but when I went over my reviews, I realized that limiting it to 25 was going to a difficult proposition. So I've bumped it up to 30. That's a good problem to have.

Edit: A couple days later, I was going through my spreadsheet and realized that I totally forgot to add Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke's Animal Tales. Can't leave that album off the list. So now it's a Top 31 Album list.

#1 The Pop Ups - Appetite for Construction

Review - "The Pop-Ups know that you don't need your parent's smart phone to have the world at your fingertips."

#2 Charlie Hope - Sing As We Go!

Review - "It's traditional but not musty, sweet but not cloying, engaging but not pandering. It's a gem of an album, definitely worthy of a comparison to Raffi."

#3 Red Yarn - The Deep Woods

Review - '"Mr. Rabbit" has an almost desperate urgency while "The Fox," which brings together "The Fox," "Midnight Special," and "Go Tell Aunty Rhody," is absolutely gorgeous. This is a folk revival, in all the many meanings of the word "revival."'

#4 Walter Martin - We're All Young Together

Review - "Whatever cool-points Martin may have lost by wadding into the kid's music world, the playful and sweet nature of this new album shows he doesn't care one bit. He feels very much at home."

#5 (tie) The Okee Dokee Brothers - Through the Woods

Review - 'The title track, featuring a lovely descending bass line, is the spiritual successor to the last album's title track, but most of the songs are more content to celebrate tiny moments -- dancing with neighbors in "Jamboree," the gentle love song "Evergreen," the ode to keeping things loose "Out of Tune."'

#5 (tie) Recess Monkey - Desert Island Disc

Review - "If the songs hold together in any particular way, it's more in their sound. In the orchestrations (from Jherek Bischoff, brother of drummer Korum Bischoff), toned-down retro-rock, and love songs, this is easily their most Beatles-esque album since their little-heard debut Welcome to Monkey Town."

#7 (tie) The Short Films - Kingdom Animalia

Review - "The entire album has a dream-like effect -- "Pegafox" is about a make-believe animal, for example, the body of a red fox with the wings of a red-tailed hawk. "The Mysterious Okapi" is the kids song we never knew Portishead had written about an animal almost none of us know."

#7 (tie) Elizabeth Mitchell - The Sounding Joy

Review - "The communal experience of singing in celebration is honored here, somewhat hushed, always joyful."

#9 (tie) Danny Weinkauf - No School Today

Review - "You don't have to be a They Might Be Giants fan to appreciate this album (though TMBG fans are most likely to go nuts for this), just a fan of nicely-crafted, occasionally goofy, kid-pop."

#9 (tie) Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir - Skýjaflétta

Review - "This is a thoroughly charming album and while I'm sure I will never get a chance to see the dance pieces these were composed for, I'm glad the album has a chance to cross the ocean for families with adventurous listening habits."

After the top ten, which I can give you because it matches my Fids and Kamily ballot, distinguishing between the rest of my list becomes a little more difficult. So I'm taking the easy way out - alphabetical order for albums 11 through 31.

Laurie Berkner - Laurie Berkner Lullabies (review)

Bears and Lions - We're a Club in the Woods (review)

Edie Carey & Sarah Sample - 'Til the Morning: Lullabies & Songs of Comfort (review)

Caspar Babypants - Rise and Shine (review)

Danny Lion - First Songs (review)

Lucky Diaz & Family Jam Band - Aqui Alla (review)

Lucky Diaz & Family Jam Band - Lishy Lou and Lucky Too (review)

Laura Doherty - In a Heartbeat (review)

Gustafer Yellowgold - Gustafer Yellowgold’s Wisdom Tooth of Wisdom (review)

Thomas Hellman and Emilie Clepper (The Secret Mountain) - I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (review)

The Hipwaders - Year-Round Sounds (review)

Hullabaloo - Shy Kid Blues (review)

Jelly of the Month Club - Introducing… (review)

Randy Kaplan - Jam on Rye (review)

The Not-Its - Raise Your Hand (review)

Papa Crow - Full Moon, Full Moon (review)

Raffi - Love Bug (review)

Recess Monkey - Wired (review)

Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could - Just Say Hi (review)

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - The Perfect Quirk (review)

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - Animal Tales (review)

Best Kids Music of 2013: A Recap

I realize this is slightly self-indulgent, but I wanted to have all the links to my posts on the best kids music of 2013 -- or at least my relatively well-informed favorites -- in a single place.

So here they are:

One final time -- for the purposes of these selections, "2013" has been defined as "music released to the general public between November 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013," a period which matches the 2013 eligibility period for this year's Fids and Kamily Awards. (By the way, for a second opinion -- and, really, more like thirty-second opinion, given the group nature of the awards -- of the year's best kids music you could do no better than to check out the 2013 Fids and Kamily award winners.)

Thanks as always to all the musicians making music for families who shared their music with those families (and me) this past year. And, of course, to you, dear reader and listener, for being someone to share that music with.

Best Kids Music of 2013: Top 25 Albums

If there was a theme to 2013, it was that of collaboration. Most of the news I was excited about revolved around kindie artists reaching out. Oh, sure, I've been talking about collaborations for a while now, but it seemed like every week news of a new partnership was announced -- Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell, for example, or Todd McHatton and, well, everybody in the kindie world. And it wasn't limited to fellow musicians. Laurie Berkner, Lunch Money, and Melissa Levis (AKA Moey) made musicals; Alison Levy is working on one and Justin Roberts might be. Recess Monkey finished their second circus show. And there are plenty of kids musicians who are still seeking that brass ring of TV.

To me, that's a sign of a couple things, one slightly worrisome, one not. The worrisome thing is the sense that people are worried about making a living just from music. Not those particular artists necessarily, but if artists in this age of Spotify are worried about making a living from selling their music to just their fans, then one way to respond is to sell their music to (hopefully) a broader audience. Or to bring their music to different audiences altogether. Given the risk of not making their money back after investing in an album (why do you think Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites hit a tipping point in the kindie world this year?), artists are looking to diversify and spread that risk around.

The non-worrisome thing is that artists are looking for different challenges to keep themselves interested and their creative juices flowing. That sort of risk-taking may not (heck, will not) succeed every time artistically and commercially, but for an ecosystem as a whole, that's a good thing.

In the end, though, no matter how many different people musicians reach out to, as a listener I'm still focused on the music itself. This year's list of top albums was every bit as hard to select as in prior years. Looking back at calendar year 2013 (which is different from the year that I've defined for this exercise -- Nov. 1, 2012 through Sept. 30, 2013, to match Fids & Kamily), I reviewed more than 80 albums and I would guess that that reflects barely a quarter and certainly less than one-third of what I received. So that means these albums reflect the top 10%, maybe even less, of what I heard this year.

In talking with someone the other day, I said that I didn't necessarily think the very top albums -- the top 5 or 10, perhaps -- were significantly better in quality than the same albums 5 or even 10 years ago. It's the depth the "bench," so to speak -- the 25th best album of the year is better than the 25th best album probably 5 and definitely 10 years ago.

With all that said, it's time to list my 25 favorite kids music albums of the year. These are listed in preference order, starting with my very favorite, though as you'll see, my interest in making fine distinctions was… diminished from prior years. Thanks to these artists (and many others) who made music for families worth sharing this past year. Onward to 2014!

In filling out my Fids and Kamily ballot, I couldn't decide between my two favorite albums of the year. Luckily, that's totally OK, you can have ties on the ballot. So these albums are tied for #1.

Justin Roberts

Recess

Review - "Many of Roberts' songwriting hallmarks are on display in Recess, starting with the irresistible title track. Child narrator with enthusiasm on full display? Check. Internal rhymes? Check. Spelling? Check. (OK, I wouldn't necessarily suggest that spelling is one of Roberts' hallmarks.) All that wrapped in powerpop that seems that seems like it can't get any more powerpoppy until he finds the amp that goes to 11."

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Pleased To Meet You

Review - "Pleased To Meet You is fabulous, an energetic blend of Americana and punk, of empathy and third-grade snark."

In a fit of indecision, I ranked the other eight albums on my F&K ballot as tied. Seems like it would be a bit generous to rank them all as tied for third, but we're generous people around here. So, alphabetically, here is the rest of my Top 10:

Frances England

Blink of an Eye

Review - "Many of the songs are fleeting glimpses -- memories -- of family life and parenthood. "Blink of an Eye" is the most obvious, but it's the dreamy "Salt Water Spin" and "Look How the Light Dances with Trees" that feel like England telling herself -- and by extension her family and us, the listeners -- 'Don't. Forget. This.'"

Billy Kelly

AGAIN!

Review - "AGAIN! is an album that had me smiling throughout much of it, and it's not just because it's funny. It's because Kelly's joy in his song's characters comes through crystal clear."

Lesley and the Flying Foxes

A Day in the Life of a Boogaleeboo

Review - "It's like a cabaret show for kids -- seriously, this needs to happen -- and the comparisons to artists like Regina Spektor and Nellie McKay in their wide-ranging musical approach are apropos."

The Not-Its!

KidQuake!

Review - "There's something to said for the methodic steps the band's taken, because KidQuake is their best album yet, a blast of fresh air, and a ton of fun."

Recess Monkey

Deep Sea Diver

Review - "All the qualities that have endeared Recess Monkey to thousands of families nationally from their Pacific Northwest perch are in ample display on their brand new album Deep Sea Diver . Humor (the wry look at those scavenging birds in the mellow Beatles-esque "Seagull" or the punny title of "Choral Reef"), kid-focused topics (disco-dancing with "Walkie Talkies" and complaining about being short in "Shrimp"), and, yes, hooks galore."

Justin Roberts

Lullaby

Review - "For the follow-up to his masterful album Jungle Gym, Roberts didn't choose to write another album of perfect pop and power-pop songs... Instead, kindie's finest songwriter stretched in a slightly different direction, writing an entire album of, well, if not exactly lullabies, then at least songs for downtime."

Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell with You Are My Flower

Turn Turn Turn

Review - "There are a handful of dance songs for fans of Zanes' dance parties and some songs that showcase Mitchell's warm yet crystalline voice. But the album's biggest strength is that this album of two of kindie's biggest stars features those musicians getting together to play songs humbly and joyfully."

The next 5 albums listed alphabetically below are the ones I hated to have to leave off my Fids & Kamily ballot/Top 10 list. They're the albums that, in a different mood, on a different day, might have appeared on that list.

Chris Doud, Willy Tea Taylor, and more

Color This Album

Review - "There's the country bluegrass of "Larry the Frog," the Woody Guthrie absurdity of "Hop in the Car," and the bluesy lament "Lullaby to Stellaouise." Or perhaps you'd prefer Bob Dylan-in-silly-mode "Crayons," the bluegrass raveup "Thirteen Bears" (it's the number of bears on the shirt, in case you're wondering), and the stone-cold classic of parental frustration/unconditional love 'Take You Into My Arms.'"

Lori Henriques

The World Is a Curious Place To Live

Review - "Lori Henriques clearly practices what she sings, offering up celebrations of the world outside of ourselves. Her jazzy-pop-by-way-of-Broadway-and-Carnegie-Hall is still unique in the world of kids music and worth being curious about."

Alastair Moock

Singing Our Way Through: Songs for the World's Bravest Kids

Review - "Singing Our Way Through might not be the first album a family thinks of to purchase for their own family, assuming that their family hasn't been struck with a serious disease. And the first couple tracks, "I Am the Light" and "When I Get Bald," deal with cancer head-on. But once you get past that, the songs just deal with tough times and humor in those tough times."

Shine and the Moonbeams

Shine and the Moonbeams

Review - "While it's the songs that deal with real-life social issues like bullying and self-respect that could give this album a long shelf life with schools and families, I'm also looking forward to sillier, groovier, jazzier songs along the lines of "Do You Ever Stop" and "Shake for Eight." Lots of fun, lets hope the success of this one makes the follow-up come out faster."

Heidi Swedberg

My Cup of Tea

Review - "You can appreciate My Cup of Tea as a straight-up album of music from folk and world traditions played with verve and imaginatively arranged. But I think you'll get more out of it if you think of it as a variety show without the banter, skits, and sponsor thanks."

The next 5 albums (again, alphabetically by artist and, if you're keeping score at home, albums 16 through 20) are definitely top 20 material.

Lloyd Miller

S.S. Brooklyn

Review - "Interspersed with [the] familiar songs are some newer songs, more intimate to the neighborhood -- personal history rather than history writ large."

Cat Doorman (aka Julianna Bright)

Cat Doorman Songbook

Review - "But even more important to the album than a spirit of peace and love is the celebration of do-it-yourself and individual expression. Songs like "Oh, the Inspiration!" and "Yeah!," as different as they are sonically, speak of the spark that drives people to create and express themselves."

Underbirds (aka Todd McHatton and Morgan Taylor)

Underbirds

Review - "But few of these pop gems sound like they were crafted with your local 5-year-old front-of-mind. Rather, they're songs about friendship and daring and love and (especially) nature that happen to be kid-friendly."

Dean Jones

When the World Was New

Review - "When the World Was New is an intimate album inspired by big questions -- why are we here? what are we doing? where are we going to? -- but never feels like a boring textbook. Instead, Jones' album is a series of (musical) essays that might prompt a few questions in the listeners' own minds, young and old."

Paul Spring

Home of Song

Review - "Home of Song is an ode to books and stories, and to the families who nurture them. I don't know if the family who reads and sings together stays together, but albums like this one make a convincing argument."

Finally, as I was trying to narrow down the final 5, I realized I just couldn't, and after all these other times of stopping at an arbitrarily-defined round number, I decided I'd stop at an arbitrarily-defined unround number. Here, then, are the final 7 albums in my Top 25, er, 27 albums of 2013

Sandra Boynton

Frog Trouble

Review - "On Frog Trouble, Boynton and her musical partner, the arranger Michael Ford, offer up another dozen songs of often surreal and animal-based nature... But a number of the songs, some of them the album's strongest, play it mostly straight -- Alison Krauss' lovely take on "End of Summer Storm" and Ryan Adams performing "When Pigs Fly," which takes that absurd premise and turns it into something beautiful."

Caspar Babypants

Baby Beatles

Review - "I don't think any Beatles cover album is essential -- just listen to the originals -- but Baby Beatles is just different enough to hold the listeners' attention far more than they would for some random (often Muzak-inspired) cover."

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

¡Fantastico!

Review - " By marrying his bubbly pop songs to a new language, he's given the songs new life and suggested an alternative route to non-English music for kids."

Moona Luna

Vamos, Let's Go

Review - "Velasquez also turns lots of... basic preschooler and early-elementary school topics -- writing letters, telling time, the seasons -- into tightly-written songs that mimic the distinctive keyboards, rhythms, and vocal harmonies of post-Bill Haley rock-n-roll."

Pointed Man Band

Swordfish Tango

Review - "Let's put it this way - it's an album that besides featuring a song about an invisible duck and Western Washington witches, it includes a song about dancing without pants -- in French. (Plus, of course, the title song, in 3 parts.)"

The Verve Pipe

Are We There Yet?

Review - "The band fully embraces its role of class clown with songs that will put smiles on the faces of all but the most curmudgeonly of listeners. Fans of A Family Album will find this every bit as winning..."

The Watson Twins

Pioneer Lane

Review - "This new album moves their folk/rock/alt-country sound out of the sanctuary and into a barn somewhere for a late-afternoon picnic that stretches into a moonlight night. The whole effect is mesmerizing, the sisters' harmonies reverberating on both the slow and uptempo tracks."

Best Kids Music of 2013: Top 25 Songs

It has been too long since I posted a list of my favorite songs of a year. 2011, to be exact.

Oops.

(I already said how embarrassed I was about that.)

Following up on my list of Top 10 kids music debuts in 2013, here's my list of my 25 favorite (or best, depending on your perspective) kids' songs on albums released over the past year ("year" defined as between November 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013, to match the Fids and Kamily Awards this year). I should note that some of these songs have been floating around for a few years now (the Trout Fishing and Shine and the Moonbeams songs), but have only now found themselves on a proper release. One could do much worse than to put all 25 on a mix CD or iTunes/Spotify playlist.

Hey, wait, I've done that! Here's the link (go here if you're in Spotify). See the end of this post for the embedded stream. By the way, songs not on Spotify are marked with an *

In any case, picking these 25 songs was tough, tougher than in most previous years, I think. I had another 15-20 songs I was seriously considering for this list, and on another day, my mood would have struck me differently and at least a couple of those songs would be on here. But I'm pressing the "publish" button today.

Top 25 Kids Music Songs of 2013 (listed alphabetically by artist)

"Similes and Metaphors" - The Bazillions (Heads or Tales)

"When Pigs Fly" - Sandra Boynton (performed by Ryan Adams) (Frog Trouble)

"Thingamajig" - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band (Lishy Lou and Lucky Too) -- I know, I know, the album was released on Oct. 1, 2013 and so technically speaking shouldn't be on here. But come on, this was song was awesome. And there was a single, so that's what I'm hanging my hat on...

"Lonely Girl" - Cat Doorman (The Cat Doorman Songbook)

"It's Not Fair To Me" - Bill Harley & Keith Munslow (It's Not Fair To Me)

"Dinosaur" - Lori Henriques (The World Is a Curious Place To Live) *

"Wag More" - Boxtop Jenkins (You're Happier When You're Happy)

"Take You Into My Arms" - Joey No Knows (Color This Album)

"Nine O' Clock Behind the Jack Rabbit" - Josh & Gab (I'm Not a Bully!)

"You Made Me a Sock Monkey" - Billy Kelly (AGAIN!) *

"Have You Ever Been Jealous?" - Alastair Moock with Rani Arbo (Singing Our Way Through: Songs for the World's Bravest Kids) *

"Let's Skateboard" - The Not-Its! (KidQuake!)

"High 5 Your Shadow" - Ratboy Jr. (Champions of the Universe)

"The Deep End" - Recess Monkey (Deep Sea Diver)

"Recess" - Justin Roberts (Recess)

"Bully Bully" - Shine and the Moonbeams (Shine and the Moonbeams)

"Home of Song" - Paul Spring (Home of Song)

"Song Without a Rhyme" - SteveSongs (Orangutan Van)

"Duermete" - Heidi Swedberg and Friends (My Cup of Tea)

"The Late, Great Nate McTate" - Trout Fishing in America (Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers)

"Here Comes My Friend" - Underbirds (Underbirds)

"Scavenger Hunt" - The Verve Pipe (Are We There Yet?)

"Stay True" - The Watson Twins (Pioneer Lane)

"Bigga Bagga" - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke (Please To Meet You)

"Honeybee" - Dan Zanes & Elizabeth Mitchell with You Are My Flower (Turn! Turn! Turn!)