It's Rock 'n' Roll, Baby!

While googling for album art, I stumbled across a series of albums by Rockabye Baby! that translate rock songs into lullabies posted on a the blog dDaunloz Music. Parents interested in indoctrinating their kids into rock music early in life now have an effective means of doing so. However, by choosing source material from popular rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Radiohead, Rockabye Baby! is clearly meant to appeal to parents just as much as to their young'uns. I'm always a sucker for an interesting cover, so I decided to give some of these albums a spin.

I haven't gotten a chance to listen to all of them, but I have skimmed through the No Doubt, Led Zeppelin and Radiohead albums (the No Doubt one seems particularly relevant since Gwen recently gave birth to her second son—I wonder if she plays No Doubt lullabies for her kids). Given that traditional rock 'n' roll instrumentation is converted into glockenspiel, mellotron and vibraphone among other dainty instruments, it's hard to avoid sounding like carnival music. Consequently, most of it sounds like something clowns would play their kids, covers by a steel drum band (we actually had one of these play every year at the high school I went to), karaoke backing tracks or elevator muzak.

Not exactly a shining review, but there are some tracks so far that stand out as interesting and wholly listenable lullaby renditions. On the No Doubt album, the group turns "New," a fast-paced and driving track into And "Rock Steady" (one of my all time favorite No Doubt songs) becomes even more mellow and more delicate in this sleepytime arrangement. The value of these albums, besides putting little nuggets to bed, is the lush intricacy with which the covers are wrought. Without the vocal tracks, the instrumentation of these songs jumps to the forefront and different aspects of a song are brought out. When these covers aren't creeping me out by making me think of clowns, they are intriguing and enjoyable—and probably great for taking a nap to.