Time of Wonder
Arif Usmani | New Zealand | 04/29/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"So far I've listened to "Time of Wonder" about five times and am enjoying it. It's not really a kids album - if there was a category called "family" or "kidult," Stefan des Lauriers' album would fit nicely into it.At first, I was confused because it doesn't sound very American at all, but when one of the last songs mentioned Montreal, I realized that Stefan must be an ex-pat Canadian. The French name, of course, reinforces that assumption.The overall impression I get is there's a very creative songwriter at work here. Some of the puns (such as "lark" in "Lion's Big Debut" and "traffic jam" in "Dinosaurs Demise") are gorgeous. The band sounds great and they have taken a lot of care.The album sounds, to me, like a home movie (I don't mean that in a negative sense ) because it has such a personal. feel to it. This is probably because Stefan does all the vocals and there's very little in the backing vocal department.The tracks I particularly like are "Blue Whale Blues" (I love the organ!), "Time to Say Goodnight", "Soft Shoe" and "Jet Fuel Folderol" with it's Bob Dylan imagery and wonderful harmonica and kazoo solos. That track was playing earlier today when one of my sons, Steve (26) phoned up. "What's that you're playing?" he wanted to know. "It sounds amazing!"The strongest thing about Time of Wonder is that I hear new things each time I listen and I rate albums based on that. Tracks like "Jamboree" and "When the Silver Whistle Blows" improve with each play and I've even found myself humming "Yodelling Frog", a track I didn't particularly care for a first.Arif Usmani"
Kids and their families will enjoy this one
David R. Kleiner | Bloomfield, NJ | 01/31/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Sometimes it takes a great jolt to realize that it's time to put things in priority, and focus on fulfilling your dream in life. For Stefan des Lauriers (rhymes with me glory day), the dream was to reach people with his music, something he had all but given up for seventeen years. The jolt came when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. You won't find any mention of this detail on Stefan's website (www.musickingdom.com), but you will find veiled references to the seventeen year hiatus. Listening to the music on his second self-released CD, "Time of Wonder", you hear songs filled with optimism, spirituality, and playful puns. The album is sub-titled, "Songs for the Young and the Young at Heart", an appropriate description. Like the best of children's literature, the songs are entertaining at a child's level, and yet there is a lot going on that will only be discovered by a more mature mind. In fact, most of the songs are so chock full of rapid wordplay that all listeners will benefit from repeated passes. You won't catch it all the first or third time, which is one of the hallmarks of a CD worth owning. To examine all eighteen songs in detail would require pages of exposition, so I'll discuss representative samples. The first song "Lion'sBig Debut", could be a companion piece to Bill Staines's "A Place in the Choir ". The song describes each member of a humongous menagerie of musicians. Amazingly, most of the instruments are replicated as they are mentioned. The co-producers, Sharkey McEwen and Ken Whitely must have some collection of instruments! Whitely is credited with playing twenty-seven instruments on this song alone, while McEwen plays three, including "snoring sloth". Stefan's voice reminds me of a Saturday-morning cartoon character at times. He has a pleasant little waver which adds a whimsical mood to the songs. Stefan knows what topics appeal to young listeners. There's a colorful circus song (When the Silver Whistle Blows), a dinosaur song (Dinosaur's Demise), a relaxing lullaby (Time to Say Good Night), and a song which connects a ladybug with a Volkswagen Bug (Little Red Bug). Don't miss the songs about frogs, wind-up monkeys, and trains. He gets a little raucous with the experimental, "Jet Fuel Folderol", a rockin' number with every one of the forty or so lines rhyming with "folderol". Then there are inspirational songs, such as "Sunflowers", a plea for us turn our "tanks into tractors", and "Vision of Victory", which encourages us to embrace the mountain that you can't climb. The production is crisp and varied. There is a lot of harmonica in the mix, often played by Stefan himself. Instruments are primarily acoustic, with a smattering of electric guitar and synth. The voice is always upfront, and the lyrics are clearly audible. I would have liked lyric sheets, because the lyrics do fly by very quickly on some of the songs, and children would enjoy following along as they listened. (The lyrics can be found at Stefan's website.) Stefan des Lauriers has put his heart and soul into this production. He uses words as toys, playfully twisting them, entertaining himself and his listeners in the process. It is an album both children and their parents can enjoy.David Kleiner"
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1