Black Lips
Arabia Mountain

Children's Music

Becoming parents, besides filling you with joy, nurturing your spiritual side, making you more responsible, causing you to lose sleep FOREVER (as if you were working in a factory even on weekends), and other such banalities, brings with it some charming hidden aspects.

One of these is engaging with a small living being, often with well-defined tastes, and above all, free from prejudice. At first, one doesn't think about it, but it is truly one of the most beautiful things about being parents.

If you are record obsessives, you will have realized, well before birth, that you will be obsessing over planning the musical education of the newborn, because the recurring nightmare is the chubby pimpled girl from the neighborhood who listened to Snap, and that can't and shouldn't happen. Unfortunately, the cold hard truth is that kids don't give a damn about what you like, and forcing them to listen to Devo can only damage them at 2/3 years old.

So my advice is: start with fairly simple and melodic music, the Beatles are the perfect example, my daughter goes crazy for All Together Now, for instance. But beware, as most of the time, the little monsters choose what they like by themselves. Just as children are the litmus test of our emotional capacity, so they are regarding the quality of the music you listen to.

So it happens that one absentmindedly places the new vinyl by those damn Black Lips on the player, and, heavens open! To the (very) pop garage notes of “Modern Art”, my daughter, and I believe many other children, literally goes crazy (an interesting reaction, considering that the song is about tripping at modern art exhibitions!).

They may have become semi-underground stars, they may have even cleaned up their sound (here they even called Mark Ronson, among other producers of the late Amy Winehouse), but their level of mischief doesn't seem to decrease, just like the ability to write killer two-minute songs that implant themselves in your cortex for months.

I'll probably commit heresy, I know, but they seem the only ones carrying on the musical legacy of the Ramones, with the same capacity for synthesis, melody, and mind-bending lyrics. And new, beyond the least raw production ever, is the introduction of instruments alien to the previous purist garage domain (on the beautiful “Family Tree” a mad sax makes an appearance, on the aforementioned “Modern Art” and“Bone Marrow” what seems like a Theremin).

It's hard to pick the best tracks, “Arabia Mountain” hardly has any weak tracks. From the almost power pop of “Time”, “New Direction”, and “Go Out And Get It”, passing through the garage standards of “Bicentennial Man” and “Noc-a-Homa” reaching episodes that range from the Beach Boys of Smile (“Bone Marrow”), to a mix between Them and 13^th Floor Elevators (“The Lie”) and proto-psychedelic nightmares (“You Keep On Running”) there's something for everyone.

In conclusion, the best album since “Let It Bloom”, and definitely my daughter's favorite!