Kids' Songs About Emotions

While I generally shy away from songs and kids music that explicitly teach subjects in a didactic way, that doesn't mean that a) non-didactic songs don't teach the listener, and b) you can't create a very catchy song that also happens to be educational.

There are lots of songs that take history as their subject, and there are any number of math, non-English language, science, and standard school or preschool life skill subjects in song. Emotional literacy, however, is a trickier subject, as the songwriter isn't so much covering facts as she or he is trying to write a song explaining the very emotions songs usually generate. It's a meta idea... for 4- or 7-year-olds.

Back in 2008, I said that there really hadn't been much if any non-didactic kids music about emotions written, and that there was a niche waiting to be filled. Luckily, I think that niche has been filled, at least a little bit -- there are now a number of tracks that I think could serve as tuneful introductions for a young audience to what emotions are.

I've provided a list below, but if you've got more to add, list them in the comments! (Note that the list generally tries to limit itself to songs about emotion, rather than including songs that deal with emotion in passing. Such a list would be much, much longer.)

“It’s Alright to Cry” - Rosie Grier (among many others) [stream]

"Cry Cry Cry” - Ziggy Marley (feat. Jack Johnson & Paula Fuga) [stream]

“Joy Comes Back” - Alastair Moock [stream]

“Furry Happy Monsters” - R.E.M. [video]

“Sad” - Big Block Singsong [video]

“Brave” - Big Block Singsong [video]

“Happy” - Big Block Singsong [video]

"Mad" - Big Block Singsong [video]

“Mama Is Sad” - Justin Roberts [stream]

“Happy Sad Silly Mad” - Jeremy Plays Guitar [video]

“Sad Robot” - The Jellydots [stream]

“Are You Happy?” - Alison Faith Levy [stream]

“If You’re Happy and You Know It..." - Raffi (and many many others) [stream]

"In All of the World" - Papa Crow [stream]

"Alright, Okay, Just Fine" - Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang [Spotify]

"Feel What U Feel" - Lisa Loeb feat. Craig Robinson [Amazon]

"Feelings Change" - The Pop Ups [stream]

Best Kids Music of 2015: Top 30 Songs

Developing a list of my 30 favorite songs from the past year is probably the most foolish ranking I attempt here every year. The number of albums to consider is large, but it is finite. Multiply that number of albums by 10 or 12, however, to consider the number of songs, and we're talking thousands of songs to consider. And, as I noted last year, a list ranking favorite songs is "ephemeral, subject to the whims of a particular moment. More than that, it probably tends toward the poppy, upbeat, and lively." I feel confident, though, these 30 songs, listed alphabetically, are among the best that kids music offered us in the past year. ("Year," as always, defined as Oct. 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015, though with particular songs no doubt that range should be considered more guideline than firm window.)

Anyway, I've combined these into a handy Spotify playlist found at the bottom of this list (click here if you're already in Spotify). Enjoy!

"If a Sandwich Was a Sandwich” - Turkey Andersen

"Grapes" - Andrew & Polly

"Use a Contraction" - The Bazillions

“Owl” - Big Block Singsong

"Sad Baby” - Caspar Babypants

“La Golondrina” - Sonia De Los Santos

"Cuantos Tacos (The Taco Song)” - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

“Loving Cup” - Cat Doorman

"Kitty Wampus" - Duke Otherwise

"Action, Friends, Action" - Funky Mama

"Tomorrow Is a Chance to Start Over" - Hilary Grist

"Cakenstein" - Gustafer Yellowgold

“It’s Gotta Rain (If You Want a Rainbow)” - The Harmonica Pocket

“If I Were a Bird” - Charlie Hope

"Sloop John B. (feat. Jesse Wagner)" - Josh and the Jamtones

"Breakfast Club (feat. Carly Ciaricchio)" - Tim Kubart

“To the Woods” - Molly Ledford & Billy Kelly

"Hello, Goodbye, Shalom" - Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights

"The Start of Things” - Alison Faith Levy

"Refreshments On Neptune” - Todd McHatton

"The Way We Gets Down” - Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips

“Together” - Moona Luna (feat. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo)

"Give Some, Get Some” - Papa Crow

“Indoor Picnic” - The Pop Ups

"Turkey in the Straw" - Red Yarn

"You Were Meant To Be" - Renee and Friends (feat. Glen Phillips)

"I Like to Ride My Bike” - Rock 'n' Rainbow

"Minnesota" - Rocknoceros

“All I Want” - Vered

"Get Happy" - The Verve Pipe

Itty-Bitty Review: Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue - Papa Crow

I praise the willingness of musicians to follow wherever their idiosyncratic muse takes them, and by that measure, few kids musicians would receive higher praise than Michigan's Jeff Krebs, aka Papa Crow. It's not that he changes musical styles dramatically from album to album -- you can hear his gentle folk-pop on his fine albums Things That Roar and Full Moon, Full Moon and you can also hear it on his EP about farting and tooting, What Was That Sound?. It's the subjects that are wildly different.

You can also hear his folk-pop on his latest EP, Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue. His subject this time? The nonsense poems of 19th century writer Edward Lear. Accompanied with nothing but his vintage 1947 Gibson guitar, Krebs tells these stories through melodies he's written for the album. Lear might be most well-known for his poem "The Owl and the Pussycat," which Krebs includes here, but the strongest songs to my ear are the leadoff track, the sea-shanty-like "The Jumblies," and the blues-y "Calico Pie." (Special shout-out to Krebs for recording the 110-line "The Courtship of the Yonghy Bonghy Bo," which Krebs reports took him 54 attempts to reach a suitable take.)

The album will be most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. You can stream and purchase the 19-minute EP here. Kids will need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy the songs here -- they do require some attention -- and these may work better mixed in with other songs, rather than in one set. But it's a fun album nonetheless. Settings of 150-year-old poetry to song is probably not the way to kindie fame and fortune, but I'm glad that Papa Crow has chosen to explore this particular side path. Recommended.

Note: I was given a (digital) copy of the album for possible review.

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)

Review: Full Moon, Full Moon - Papa Crow

Michigan-based musician Papa Crow zigs and zags. His hushed, heartfelt debut Things That Roar was earnest, while the follow-up EP What Was That Sound? was… well, maybe it was heartfelt, too, but it was a heartfelt and fun album about flatulence, so I think you see my point about the zigging and zagging.

Having gotten toots out of his system -- so to speak -- Papa Crow (aka Jeff Krebs) returns to the warmth of his debut with his recent release Full Moon, Full Moon. If the first album sounded a little bit like it was recorded in the middle of a Michigan winter, this new album has a sunnier, more expansive feeling, like it was recorded over the course of some long Michigan summer days with many friends.

"Moving to the Beat" is a gentle ska-tinged tune featuring organ and saxophone, while "Great White Pine" is straight-ahead bluegrass tune about camping. If "I Wanna Rock & Roll" starts out softer than I'd expect a song titled that to begin, it ends with a suitably loud riff. Krebs says the album loosely follows a day in the life of a child from sunup to sunup, so as you'd expect, a lot of the album's second half is mellower -- "Give Some, Get Some," featuring Frances England, is a highlight, as is the title track and "The Michigan Waltz," the latter written by Krebs' grandfather.

You can listen to 3 full songs from the 42-minute album (most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8) here. The album is made with evident care and craft, and will again appeal to families who are fans of Frances England, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Dan Zanes, artists who originally inspired Papa Crow. This album which celebrates the outside world is a worthy successor to both of its predecessors -- more so the debut than the cheekier EP -- and worth checking out regardless of how well you know his music. Definitely recommended.

Note: I was given a copy of the album for possible review.