Pitchfork

I would like, if I may, to hearken back to the days of standardized tests. Join me for an analogy:

Q: Barney The Purple Dinosaur is to Monster Songs For Children as...
a) Archie is to Reggie
b) Bullwinkle & Rocky are to Boris & Natasha
c) Speed Racer is to Racer X
d) All of the Above

Seeing how in the series above, the latter is often perceived as the evil opposite of the former, the answer is, of course, d) All of the Above. If you are looking for an alternative to Teletubbies, Bananas in Pajamas, or Sharri Lewis & Lambchop-- well, this is certainly alternative. Twenty- six monsters are profiled from A to Z on this disc: one for each letter of the alphabet. The Fairs begin with the Abominable Snowman and close with Zombie meeting every child's nightmare creatures (Godzilla, Ogres, Trolls, etc.) along the way.

Each one is introduced by the cute voice of young tyke Robins Fair (by my estimations, he's about five years old) who calmly explains that the "Yeti is like Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman but only the Abominable Snowman is smaller," and "Headless Horseman rides a horse and doesn't have a head." What follows the introduction is often dark and simple guitar lines and the deep scratchy Tom Waits- esque vocals of David Fair. There's just enough dissonance to keep things everyone awake.

Needless to say, Monster Songs For Children isn't the type of album that generates a lot of interest from common folk. Rather, it's one of those that makes your friends jealous of your record collection and works well in small doses on mix tapes. Play it on Halloween.