Like its simultaneously released companion album,
Baby's Bedtime,
Judy Collins'
Baby's Morningtime is a children's recording, and it is another collection of music composed and arranged by
Ernest Troost. But while the other disc has a specific function, providing lullabies to put children to bed, this one has a less specific purpose. "Contains 26 Morning Songs for Infants Through Age 5," reads a legend on the cover, but in practice the "morning songs" turn out to be poems by the likes of
Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth,
Christina Rossetti, Gertrude Stein, and Robert Browning, among others, given musical settings by
Troost that range from light classical through country-folk to soft rock. The disc certainly sets a gentle mood, especially because of
Collins' typically clear and ethereal singing, but much of the time it seems less like an album aimed at children than an esoteric art project for the singer and composer. True, tracks like "The Pancake" and "The Worm" address children's topics, but much of the time the album consists of one musical vignette after another (26 tracks in about 37 minutes) to which small children couldn't really be expected to respond. As esoteric art projects go, however, it is quite engaging for those over the age of five. ~ William Ruhlmann