Music Review: VeggieTales - Silly Songs with Larry

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Fun songs that all ages will laugh over

Cons: Being twelve years old makes it woefully out of date.

The Bottom Line:

Silly fun for all

But a dated collection

You'll love these classics

It's Always Time for Silly Songs with Larry

The Veggie Tales video series has a legion of fans, both adult and kid. These computer animated videos entertain with a liberal dose of humor. Naturally, these DVD's have also spawned a line of CD's collecting the songs from the shows.

A favorite segment in each video is Silly Songs With Larry, the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song.

Here is the CD that Silly Song fans have been wanting. It includes all 10 of the official Silly Songs as of 2001 as featured on the Ultimate Silly Song Countdown Video in their original release order. It also contains four additional tracks, "Lost Puppies" (from Esther), "Oh Santa" (the Silly Song from the Christmas video), "Do the Moo Shoo" (from the Countdown video), and the "Silly Song Remix Medley" from the closing credits of the same video.

It's great to have these songs all on the same CD. I got it when I was a recent Veggie convert, and it allowed me to collect and learn all the silly songs without much effort, especially since the tunes are so catchy. True, the songs were originally created for video, but if you've seen the videos, they don't loose that much here since you can picture the funny visuals with the words you are hearing.

The best part of these songs is their randomness. They have an internal logic that is all their own. And they aren't any more then they pretend to be - fun.

Stylistically, they cover a wide range. "His Cheeseburger" sounds like a 70's rock ballad while "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps" combines barbershop quartet with yodeling. Really! We even get a track with a classical music influence with "Larry's High Silk Hat." Since these are cartoon vegetables singing, the vocals are rather obviously adults doing silly voices. Still, considering the words, it matches perfectly.

This collection of silly songs is now over four years old. There have been a lot of great silly songs since then. While it's about time for a new collection of these songs on CD, this release is great for the early silliness.

Tracks:

1. The Water Buffalo Song

2. The Hairbrush Song

3. The Dance Of The Cucumber

4. I Love My Lips

5. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

6. The Song Of The Cebu

7. His Cheeseburger

8. The Yodeling Veterinarian Of The Alps

9. Endangered Love

10. Larry's High Silk Hat

11. Lost Puppies

12. Oh Santa!

13. Do The Moo Shoo

14. Silly Song Remix Medley