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.

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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."

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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:

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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.'"

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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.

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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.'"

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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.

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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."

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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.)"

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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..."

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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."

Weekly Summary (10/21/13 - 10/27/13)

Video: "Recess" - Justin Roberts

Justin Roberts has not been one of those artists who've ridden to kids music stardom on the tails of his videos -- he's only made a few, and while they're good, they tend to attract tens of thousands of views because of the quality of the songs.

From a pure video perspective, Roberts' brand new video for "Recess," the title-track from his award-winning album, this is probably my favorite of his.  That's mostly because the video -- directed by his sister Staci, name-checked in the song and showing off fancy disco moves of her own as the teacher -- very much captures the playfulness that Roberts and his Not Ready for Naptime Players brings to their live performances.  I fully expect to see some disco moves the next time I see them live.

Justin Roberts - "Recess" [YouTube] (h/t USA Today) 

Fids and Kamily 2013 Music Awards Announced!

When I started this website more than nine years ago, I held in my mind two slightly contradictory notions about music reviews: 

1) There was not enough distinction between music reviews, especially for kids -- music was uniformly good in many reviews -- and therefore finer distinctions needed to be made to assist parents in allocating finite resources (monetary and time). 

2) Cultural reviews are inherently biased and basing one's own opinion of a cultural product on that of just one other person could be deficient.

In other words, individual reviews are both important and insufficient.

I've tried to write at this site in a way that honors both notions.  While I do tend to cover only music worth the time of at least some portion of my audience, there is some gradation in my reviews.  And I've always tried to convey the idea that these are just my opinions. Really well-informed opinions based on thousands of hours of listening to thousands of albums, but opinions nonetheless.

All of which is to say that I consider the founding of the Fids and Kamily Music Awards one of the best things I've done for kids music.  Since 2006, I, along with Bill Childs (Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child) and Gwyneth Butera (Gooney Bird Kids) (who took over for Amy Davis) have coordinated the awards, soliciting Top 10 lists from the people who spend more time listening to kids music than anybody in the country.  There's lots of great kids music out there, but Fids and Kamily highlights the best of the best.

This year's list of 2013's best albums features some familiar faces along with a few newcomers to the list.  It's 2013, so how about the Top 13 albums of the past year, led by Justin Roberts, returning to the top of the Fids and Kamily pile:

1. Justin Roberts - Recess
2. Frances England - Blink of an Eye
3. Alastair Moock - Singing Our Way Through-Songs for the World's Bravest Kids
4. Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell - Turn Turn Turn
5. Shine and the Moonbeams - Shine and the Moonbeams
6. Recess Monkey - Deep Sea Diver
7. The Not-Its! - Kidquake
8. Dean Jones - When the World Was New
9. Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - Pleased to Meet You
10. Justin Roberts - Lullaby
11. Lori Henriques - The World Is A Curious Place to Live
12. Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - Fantastico!
13. Lloyd H. Miller - S.S. Brooklyn  

More details on the year's results, including 10 more honorable mention albums and the year's top 6 debut albums can be found on the 2013 results page.

Thanks to all the judges for participating, Bill and Gwyneth for coordinating (especially this year) , Jeff Bogle from Out With the Kids for logo design, and most importantly to all the kids music artists who continue to make such quality music for families to enjoy.

(Oh, and look for my personal lists in the near future.)