Average Price: $10.65
Rating: :1Star:

I popped this CD into the player in my car with an open mind and no expectations. Usually with this attitude, I am pleasantly surprised by the new movie or music that I try.

Unfortunately with “Alien Rap”, this was not the case. I found the music to be monotonous, uncreative and basically downright annoying. I think the creators took some liberty in calling the music “rap”. I would describe it as munchkins talking into a microphone on reverb with bad disco music in the background. Here’s the lowdown:

THE MUSIC

This CD contains 9 tracks which totals around 40 total minutes of recording. I will list the titles and times of each song:

1. My Best Friend is an Alien (2:29)
2. Alien food (4:29)
3. How to Make Alien Fries (2:50)
4. Alien Schools (8:37)
5. How To Make Alien Ice Cream (4:13)
6. The Great Message (5:33)
7. How to Make an Alien Shake (3:56)
8. An Alien Song (4:07)
9. How to Make an Alien Burger (2:36)

As you can see, one of the songs is actually over eight minutes long!! This is far too long for the attention span of the average child, and I have to admit that my brain sort of shut down after the first five minutes of this particular song. The songs all sound very similar to me and if you asked me how I liked “X” song, I probably couldn’t tell you. It seemed like 40 minutes of the exact same song over and over (and over!).

RECORDING QUALITY

I found the recording quality of the music to be very poor. It sounded like an amateur recording with too many special effects added in. Some of the background music was too busy to have lyrics with it, making the words difficult to understand.

THE MESSAGE

For the most part (and from what I could understand of the words) the “aliens” are trying to get a positive message across to their listeners. Some of the messages include:

• Diversity is a good thing.
• If you eat healthy food, you will grow strong.
• Stay in school and enjoy learning.
• Peace and Happiness are attainable.

The messages that Alien Kids are trying to get across are wonderful in theory, and the content is age appropriate, but the message is often lost behind the music and cannot overcome the poor quality of this production.

PACKAGING

The cover art on the CD is cute and creative if a little formulaic. It shows little green men playing instruments or wearing a peace sign on a starry “outer space” background. There are only liner notes provided with the packaging so you are left to guess at any lyrics that are difficult to understand (and there are a lot of them). The plastic case is a standard CD jewel case, very easily broken. It was broken from shipping when I received it.

BOTTOM LINE

Even though I did not personally like the music on this CD, I decided to find out what my 3 year old daughter thought of it. I did not even have to ask. She made several comments while the disc was playing. Some of the most descriptive were “Turn it off, this is too strange” and “Mommy, why don’t they sing”. I wish I knew, sweetie. . . I wish I knew.

Overall, I would not recommend this CD. I gave it one star for the positive messages it attempts to convey, and the cute cover art.