Justin Roberts “Meltdown!” CD Review Media Reviews Families.com

Every once in a while you cross paths with a CD that simply brightens your day and plants a big, honest smile across your face. And every once in a while you will come across a collection of kid’s songs that has an odd little habit of always finding it’s way into your car CD player during the drive to pick up your child and then remains spinning once your little lady or gentleman has been collected. Most recently, that collection of music is the thirteen songs making up Justin Roberts’ fifth full-length record entitled “Meltdown!”

Justin Roberts

Justin started releasing music for kids ten years ago, after working as a Montessori School teacher during the day and fronting an indie rock and roll band at night. His music, while having a delightfully simple pop-sensibility, has just enough of a classic rock and roll edge to it (think Beach Boys, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Billy Joel and even a hint of “Kerplunk” era Green Day) that is able to be enjoyed by hipster adults as well as rockin’ toddlers, kids and tweens. That is a rare combination to find even in the singles-driven Top 40 radio of today, let alone in the kid’s music scene, which for years has been cluttered with safe and soft folkie interpretations of classic Pete Seeger tunes or ancient nursery rhyme texts. Justin Roberts is a member of a new breed of childrens’ music acts performing today, many of whom cut their teeth as struggling, touring independent musicians before turning to kiddy rock. In some cases, these artists find inspiration for their lyrical and/or stylistic shift when they look down to find little knee-high creatures running rampant in their own homes. For these musicians who now fancy themselves parents, starting to craft kids’ music that sounds like regular adult rock music, only with lyrics written with a youngsters’ point of view, seems like a natural musical progression.

While I do not believe Roberts has a child himself, he is continuing to be successful in his goal of writing kids’ songs that an adult would also enjoy. Meltdown’s thirteen songs, filled with electric and acoustic guitar, bass, drums and trumpet, are all rock solid with a handful of remarkable standouts. The lead track “I Chalk” is a rollicking tale of a little sidewalk artist and his museum quality airplanes, radios and motorbikes that keep getting washed away when the lawn is watered. The title track may contain the funniest line in the nearly forty minutes of music on the disc. In it, the boy character and his little brother, who appear throughout the record, have just been caught coloring on their mother’s antique chairs, and well, she has a “Meltdown!” The phrasing of that section is brilliant. “Maybe the Monster” turns the tables on the tired boy-scared-of-a-monster motif and instead conjures up the image of a scared, hungry monster itching to escape from a child’s room because he is frightened of the little boy. Towards the back of the album there is a pair of mellow cuts, “Koala Bear Diner” and “Song For You”. Both songs are slower numbers but every bit as charming and lovely as their faster counterparts.

Roberts’ songs are smart and witty with clever word play throughout. Listening to the record, I never once get the impression that Roberts’ words are forced. There is also a complete absence of cheesy lyrical content. In short, “Meltdown!” is a refreshing, near-perfect collection of tunes for your entire family to enjoy together.

Meltdown! Album Cover