Tim Kubart (Photo credit: James Daniel)
Tim Kubart‘s new album, Home, is a reflection of his pop spirit – fun, melodic, upbeat and always trying, sometimes a little too hard, to bring a smile n’ groove to his audience. Home is the follow-up to Tim’s first album, the highly successful Anthems for Adventure, and takes the listener through a story about the joy, fun, and bittersweet moments you experience at Home. In addition to his successful Kindie music career, Tim is well known for his work on Sprout’s Sunny Side Up Show and his performances as the “Tambourine Guy” with Postmodern Jukebox. Once again supported by his Space Cadets, Tim Kubart’s Home is an album the whole family can enjoy, and especially the littlest ones.
So how does a Full Van Fun review work? Each member of the family listens to each song and scores it as AWESOME, average, or not awesome. We total up the scores for each song as well as the whole album (e.g. if everyone in the family scores every song as AWESOME, then the album would be 100% AWESOME, if everyone scores every song as average, it would be 50% AWESOME, etc.).
The Songs We Liked
On Tim Kubart’s Home, there were four songs that everyone really liked:
- Last Turn Home – Maybe it was because it is the first song, maybe it was because of the peppy pop melody, but Last Turn Home scored a perfect 100% AWESOME!
- Showtime – Showtime features a driving pop beat with a strong multi-layered chorus that sounds like so many songs you’ve heard before, but still manages to surprise and delight. Showtime also scored a perfect 100% AWESOME!
- Biggest Brother – A little bit of reggae, a little bit of pop, and a little bit of soul make Biggest Brother one of the best songs on Home, especially if you have any “big brothers” in your family.
- Better – If Of Monsters and Men were from New York and played Kindie music, this would be their song. Laurie Berkner joins Tim for this duet and the blend of their harmonies takes this song to another level.
The Songs We Didn’t
On Tim Kubart’s Home, there were only two songs that didn’t really resonate with any of us: Job at the House Parts 1-3, which we just scored as one song, and Halfway Down. While the best songs on Home perfectly reflect Tim’s pop spirit, these songs didn’t feel as natural and were almost trying too hard to be educational or emotional.
The Rest of the Album
The rest of the album is filled with solid songs that everyone enjoyed. Breakfast Club is the first official single from Home and brings an infectious brightness to breakfast.
Sunday Crafternoon almost falls victim to the same flaw of trying too hard, but there’s just something about horns and pop melodies that is hard to not like. Songs like Backyard Swinging, Rooms and Dancing in the Kitchen play with different rhythms (e.g. disco, salsa, etc) to get the whole family grooving. Finally Moving Day brings a strong melodic and thematic close to this story of Home.
Final Score
Overall, we give Home a rating of 70% AWESOME which shows that everyone, including Mom, Dad, and even the older kids, thought the album was better than average.
However, if you look at the different scores for each age group, it is clear that little ones (i.e. toddlers and pre-K) love the album, giving it an almost perfect score at 94% AWESOME! The scores drop a little for grade school and older kids, but still well above average at 67% and 65% AWESOME. Finally, Mom and Dad give the album a little better than average. In a nutshell, your little ones will probably LOVE Tim Kubart’s Home, your elementary school and older kids will likely think Tim Kubart’s Home is pretty good, and you will think its fine (probably really liking some songs and really not liking others). Don’t forget to check out our #8isEnoughQuestions interview with Tim Kubart!
Disclosure: Full Van Fun was provided a copy of the album for possible review.
