Beans on Toast - The Fascinating adventures of Little Bee

***1/2

One for the kids!!!

For the past few years Beans on Toast has released a new album on his birthday and ge had no plans to let this year be any different. In the past he has made songs about drugs, festivals and war amongst a whole plethora of other things, so perhaps this year will be a bit different after all. As this year he’s produced an album of songs for children that even has its own accompanied stories. ‘The Fascinating Adventures of Little Bee’ is his first foray into released music for children, which is a really nice idea.

But it’s worth noting this has become quite a market recently with Nick Cope (The Candyskins), Justin Fletcher (Childrens TV Actor) and Andy Day (Childrens TV Presenter) all having released kids albums, though Beans on Toast is the first I can think of to cross generations (not counting previous bands). The written stories to accompany the songs are written by Jamie and Lily, the same ones that Beans has previously written about in their own song. So is it any good, as you’re reading a review I guess that’s why you’re here. Fairly obviously as the audience isn’t necessarily the same as normal it doesn’t totally have the same sound all the way through.

But then as Jay has such a distinctive voice, it also does very sound like a Beans on Toast record. It opens with an introduction song to the character Little Bee followed by ‘The Woods’. There are nods to different genres of music too with ‘To the City’ having an urban style backing track. It is very obvious it is aimed at KS1 children, so of course this is not going to have the same feel as his previous albums. But it’s not meant to, as a father himself he has probably pitched this perfectly. Its good fun and while my now teenage son probably wouldn’t appreciate it now, I know he would have loved it about nine years ago. Continuing the music fitting the story, the time travel song has a cave man vibe about it.

I can see this being a hit in the family fields of the festivals next year, the “diddly dee Little Bee gets quite infectious appearing in every song. Each song is less than two minutes long again with the attention span of little ones in mind. In a few months every parent in the primary school playground will know the songs inside out (whether they want to or not). Certainly a great way of getting your fan base locked in early too. The last song is ‘A Gig’ too so teaching them some of the best things in the World from the start.

Review by Jon Cooper

Check Out! the Video for 'Little Bee goes to the Rainbow' Below...