Michael and the Rockness Monsters

By Preschool of Rock
Price $9.99
Age 2-9 yrs.

Michael & The Rockness Monsters has a laid-back, highly pleasurable style that grabs and holds kids' attention. The music is playful, the vocals strong, but it is the clever and often funny lyrics that so fully win children over. The titles alone (Cosmic Vacation, Dinosaur Haircut, Micemaker, . . .) give some indication of the fun that is in store. The lyrics' traverse highly imaginative storylines that contain the sort of off-kilter flights of fancy kids find deeply engaging. The choruses contain such strong hooks that listeners find themselves singing along the first time through. The album's catchy, humor-laced opener, Pirate Song, is a fine example. The identity-confused singer ('I don't know who I am. I've got a patch for one eye and a hook for a hand . . .') is helped by a young studio audience to realize he's a pirate. He invite's the troupe to say 'Aarrr!' along with him and they do, boisterously and wholeheartedly. It's great fun, and like much of the rest of album, listeners' smiles flow fast and free in response.