Razor & Tie's
Kidz Bop series is definitely a one-trick pony show, with kids doing singalong choruses to hit songs in various genres. At best these grade-school karaoke epics are mildly amusing, sometimes uneasily eerie, and generally mostly irritating, and it's difficult to imagine anyone, adult or child, going out of his or her way to find one of these collections. This one features country songs given the kid karaoke treatment, ranging from
Tom Cochrane's "Life Is a Highway" (which it no doubt is, but can you really, really understand that before you can drive?) to
Brad Paisley's "The World." As usual, at least one song is just wrong on multiple levels. This time it's a version of
Sara Evans' "Suds in the Bucket," which the kids sing gleefully, even though it's a song about domestic dysfunction and presents running away to Las Vegas as an emotional solution. Sure, most folks will approach these collections like it's all a big joke, which, of course, it is, but it's a joke that is more annoying than truly funny, and if these albums aren't always distasteful, they certainly leave a bad taste more often than not.