Taking off of the hugely popular children's show Bob the Builder, comes an album one would think is geared toward kids, but this is not where it hits.

Most children watching the show tend to be 1-4 years of age, but this album is not geared toward them. Too old for younger children to understand and too kiddie for older children to care for, it's lost in that void of "who cares?" Sure there are a catchy beats and a great backing with songs like "Crocodile Rock" and "Mambo No. 5" that everyone knows, but the song lyrics are so fast that most kids cannot understand them.

I recently gave this CD to a friend of mine who is a daycare teacher to see what reaction it had with the kids. I figured, what a great testing ground, I can see it's results in action; boy was I wrong. They were all excited to hear their favorite Bob songs but they were in for a shock when it didn't even sound like Bob, he all the sudden has a British accent. Where did that come from? The kids danced a little bit to the first track, "Can We Fix it?" because they know some of the lyrics, but after that it was all down hill. Crying and disappointment soon came and the music was forced to stop.

What went wrong? First of all Bob shouldn't have a British accent, kids just don't know it that way. Secondly, they did not use any of the songs off the show, which is what the kids know and love. This entire album must have been thrown together as a marketing scheme to pull more money out of parent's pockets because it has nothing to do with Bob the Builder.

The only saving grace is the enhanced CD part of the disc that has two videos that show all the wonderful characters that the children know and love, but to purchase a disc for two videos is insane.

Can it be fixed? I don't even think Bob and the crew could fix this disaster.
10-Jun-2002 12:18 PM