Various For Kids Three

For The Kids Three! is one of those difficult albums to listen to because it’s hard to figure out exactly who wants to listen to it. Kids, presumably, but do they really care whether or not their sing-along songs are performed by people with an iota of musical credibility like Of Montreal and Mates of State? And if they do, would they be sympathetic to O.A.R. massacring "Itsy Bitsy Spider”? Hopefully not. So that leaves parents trying to pass on their musical tastes to their kids by letting them hear Jolie Holland perform songs from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Either way, this third volume in the series has some good songs, some bad songs and some of the proceeds go to the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach charity, so at least it’s for a good cause. And with bands like Great Lake Swimmers, Rogue Wave and P:ano contributing, things could be a lot, lot worse.