Toddlers Sing
With 20 tunes in around 38 minutes, this CD is ideal for listeners in its targeted audience: kids from 2 to 5 years old. The songs (and rhymes) are all classics, and each is taken at a slack enough pace that the artists stand out. And who are the artists?  Kids themselves, all in the targeted age range. They get an acoustic folk accompaniment for "I'm a Little Teapot" and a faux R&B; backing for other tunes. Loosely gathered in, the lyrics for the songs delight children's ears and are tremendously cute, full of offhand mirth and glee. There are moments of in-studio laughter that make the final CD, and if that weren't enough, there are also what sound like impromptu recitations, from "Peas, Porridge Hot" to the quick "Fuzzy Wuzzy." In addition, the CD includes a great "Happy Birthday" and numerous examples of call-and-response singing that make adults happy merely to hear something so unhampered by excessive scripting, structure, or controlled forethought. --Andrew Bartlett