Is it a universal truth that all kids love pop music? I now know enough about the 3 – 5 year old set to tell you that not all those downloads Katy Perry and Taylor Swift get are coming from tweens and teens. Very many of us with little kids at home have pop royalty in high rotation, and let’s be honest, it’s not like we hate it. If high energy, happy-dancey tunes are the go for your kids, let me tell you about Nay Nay’s Hey Hey, Let’s Play.
Nay Nay is the steampunk styled pop persona of Naomi Young, who you will know best as the voice of Hootabelle on ABC’s Giggle and Hoot from 2011 – 2016. Hey Hey, Let’s Play is a collection of 14 original songs, every one of which has gotten Miss 5 hopping around the room, and singing into spatulas (I mean “microphones”).
The album opens with the celebratory “Hey Hey, Let’s Play,” which sets the theme of play and upbeat style for the rest of the album.
It’s followed by “Bubble Pop,” which I find delightful, and I dare you to get it out of your head.
Now, true talk, the third track, “My Brother Ate My Lego,” was my least favorite track, but this was the perfect reminder for me that one of the special things about kids getting to listen to “kid’s music” is that it’s for them, not me. We’re a little obsessive in our home about Miss 5’s responsibility to keep her Lego blocks away from her baby sister, and she’s surely had more than one of her toys covered in baby slime, so this song really hit her where she lives. Out of all the songs on the album, this was the one she wanted to hear on repeat.
Her other favorite song is the following track, “When I Woke Up,” in which she gets to imagine herself a dinosaur, a frog, a steam train, and an ocean wave. “Train Blues,” with it’s “I’m a train” chorus holds similar imaginative appeal.
Active, freestyle play takes center stage with many of the tracks on this album. “Rain Stomp” celebrates the excitement of playing in puddles. “Smash it Down” is about the joy of building up blocks or a sand castle, just to tear it down. In “Let’s Laugh,” Nay Nay “ha ha”s and “hee hee”s back and forth with a chorus of happy kids. And, the final track, “Ready Set Go,” sets kids off on their next adventure, perhaps a running race, bike ride, or game of rocketship play – “catch me if you can.” Even the album’s slowest track, the sweet lullaby, “Maybe Tomorrow” is a dreamy list of things we might do tomorrow, after “we’ll fly together, across the sky and into the night.”
No question, the song I love the best on this collection is “I Have a Voice,” an empowering anthem which uses both Nay Nay’s and kids’ voices to celebrate individuality. “I have a voice, you have a voice, I have a voice, and it’s different to yours,” they sing – “Stand out, if you want to be heard!”. I know many of us mothers of girls, in particular, always welcome songs like this. My singing along to this track even earned me my own spatula microphone!
If dance parties in your living room are your family’s thing, Hey Hey, Let’s Play is one for your bouncing, hopping, choo-chooing, bum shaking, singing along collection.
Read more about Nay Nay, including how to buy Hey Hey, Let’s Play and to see her science based “Tinkertime” series on her website.
This review is independent and self-funded.
If you missed our first two reviews in the “Listening Ears On!” series, read them here…