Music Review: “Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang”

Music Review: “Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang”
Stacey Greenberg

I immediately loved this CD because someone actually sent it to me free and asked me to review it. (Obviously this person does not know that I am musically challenged and alternate between old Joni Mitchell CDs and cheesy pop music icons like the Counting Crows and Matchbox Twenty. However, I must say that in the past 19 months I have become quite a connoisseur of Children’s music.) Ok on to the review…

When the lyrics to the first track “Farm Animal Friends” hit my ears, I was a bit worried (“I like roosters, I like cows…”), but by the end of the song I was charmed. Charmed in “A Mighty Wind” sort of way. The music seemed like it could be on the soundtrack to a children’s mockumentary by Christopher Guest. However, once I heard “Freedom of the Heart (Ooodily Ooodily),” I was sucked in completely. It took me about ten seconds to realize that I had first heard this song in the movie “Chuck and Buck.” (That was one bizarre movie, but I loved it.) I immediately “got” what this whole album was about—FUN!

I’ve been playing the CD nonstop in the car and have every song memorized (it isn’t hard). Each track is catchy in its own way, and the tunes and voices vary widely. My current personal favorite is “I Don’t Think I Like It” which sounds like it is sung by an East Asian four year old. (“When I have to pee and there is no potty to be found, I don’t think I like it, I don’t think I like it, I don’t think I like it very much.”) The fact that I have played it repeatedly and not grown sick of it says a lot. I have found that the more I play it, the more I like it actually.

So does my son like the CD you ask? He is a bit young to sing along and since I play it in the car he isn’t free to dance or move about, but I believe that he enjoys it. Not as much as Nemo, but yes. So it may be too late to buy it as a stocking stuffer, but order it the next time you have a craving for new music. You won’t be disappointed.