Hot on the heels of winning a Grand Prize in this year’s John Lennon Songwriting Contest, North Carolina’s favorite power pop band for kids, Big Bang Boom, is poised to come front and center on the national stage with the September 18 release of their third studio CD, Because I Said So!
First off, I have to say that this is one of the best kid’s CD’s I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing in a very long time. Big Bang Boom is fun, loud and exciting. The lyrics, although very oriented for kids, are incredibly written. The music is cleverly mixed with pop, hip-hop, alternative and even a bit of country; I actually had to sit and listen to it on my own to really piece it apart because my son was going completely crazy over it. I’ve never seen him belting out lyrics and actually requesting to hear a CD over and over and over again until ‘Because I Said So!’ arrived in the mail. After that… well my living-room turned into a stage and he must have thought himself a rock-star because he started banging his cardboard house until it just collapsed. After that, I just had to get a video…
The song playing in the video is Bicycle, it’s his favorite on the album next to Green Light. The latter being really fun to sing with your kids and had him giggling to bits because he loves cars. What child doesn’t like to yell out, “GREEN MEANS GO!” So we started dancing and when the lyrics said, “Yellow means slow” we’d slow down and when it said “Red means stop” we’d stop. It was tons of fun!
Some of the other great songs on Because I Said So! are Hippie Mom, which is really catchy and actually a heartfelt tribute to a special Mom, and One which is about making a difference in the world. Which I should add in addition to this being one of the best kids CD’s I’ve heard, it is also the only one I’ve listened to that I’ve enjoyed from the very first song to the last with my children. I had no qualms over playing it again and again, because after awhile it just sounds like what I listen to on my mp3 player!
“We try to write using language that is familiar and meaningful to children, while on another level referencing a depth that kids may not understand. It’s like SpongeBob cartoons. There’s plenty in those cartoons that grownups will ‘get,’ but that goes right over kids’ heads. As with any good work of art, we want our songs to have multiple layers of meaning for anyone, at any age.”
It has a lot of great energy in it and a lot of the lyrics I found myself laughing to, especially Are We There Yet when the boy’s iPod dies and he’s bored with nothing to do so he just annoys his parents. That’s my teen right there! The parent goes on to ask why he can’t just sit there and look at cars or the trees and that’s me! Did I mention that all the songs kind of have a story or conversation between what the parents are saying and the kids? That’s where Because I Said So! comes in, the song about the child who doesn’t get how parents can say that. It’s hilarious.
This is one CD you do NOT want to miss out on. If you haven’t gotten into getting your kids age-related music, this should be your very first CD to pick up. Big Bang Boom did an amazing job with it and I’m really looking forward to what they have in store next!
Connect: You can connect with Big Bang Boom on their Facebook Page and/or Big Bang Boom.
Purchase: Because I Said So! by Big Bang Boom will be released on September 18th! I’ll make sure to remind you when it’s available! Until then, you can check out their earlier music their Facebook Page!
