Amazon.co.uk Review
Subtitled "A Musical Adventure For Kids", World Playground is the kind of album everyone in the family should hear. It's a collection of children's songs from around the world sung mostly in their native languages and presented in attractive and tuneful arrangements. The songs travel from Africa to the Caribbean, from Australia to North America. It's enjoyable and entertaining to journey from "Waltzing Matilda", sung in the Aboriginal language called Pitjantjatjara, to Buckwheat Zydeco's "Mardi Gras Mambo", then cross over to Greece for the bouzouki strumming and rousing chorus of "Tik Tik Tak", before heading for Brazil and "Good Morning To You" (sung in Portuguese and Patua). Produced by the well-known World Music label, Putumayo, the album comes with an excellent and colourful booklet which explains the songs and prints translations. There is something of a North American slant to the selections (nothing from Asia or the Far East, for example), but still the album has a lot of fun demonstrating how similar so many diverse musical cultures are, and how much we all have in common with each other. As the album says, it's "guaranteed to make you feel good!" --Mark Walker
