Bringing the Silly With Andrew & Polly

A good (no, great) portion of children's music is about getting silly. And the more psyched the performers are about getting in touch with their inner silly child, the better the music gets.

Andrew & Polly are really silly, in that good way. They have compiled songs from their kid's podcast, Ear Snacks, into a new collection. Titled sensibly EAR SNACKS: SONGS FROM THE PODCAST, you get a dozen tunes that resonate instantly with listeners. We just returned from a long road trip and "Grapes" and "I Wanna Be a Giraffe" were big singalongs. As far as the silly, "Why is Fruit Fruit?" is actually two songs in one, since it meanders from the central theme to a tale of lost house keys.

Sarcasm is an acquired taste and Andrew & Polly tend to shy away from that particular brand of humor, based on their audience age range (3-7). Matt hits that sweet spot and Ben, while older, does not really appreciate top-notch snark. He enjoyed the gentle "How Can You Tell If It's Going to Rain?" and farfisa-organ opener "Dancing Pants," featuring LA kindie rapper extraordinaire Mista Cookie Jar.

Andrew & Polly visit old concepts with new eyes (using the vantage point from their two-year-old son Izzy). EAR SNACKS may lack a central theme but listeners can hear genuine enthusiasm as well as stellar production values. I'll take that over another acoustic lecture about family values any day.

EAR SNACKS: SONGS FROM THE PODCAST is available on September 30 from Andrew & Polly's website, iTunes, CDBABY, and Amazon.

Here is the video for Andrew & Polly's song, "Ballphabet":