Review of the Twink CD & picture-book from Amplifier by Stewart Mason

Boston resident Mike Langlie collects toy pianos, and his debut disc under the name Twink makes extensive use of his hobby. Unlike previous artists who used toy instruments, most notably '80s college radio faves Pianosaurus, Twink uses children's instruments (augmented with keyboards and strings) to make tunes that recall the records we played on our little chunky Fisher-Prices in preschool. (I was also playing my older sister's Beatles singles by then, but I was a weird kid.) The self-titled CD (on Dyspepsidisc) is even packaged as one of those old-fashioned storybook-plus-record combos. The storybook is the greater draw; a beautifully illustrated 32-page wordless book starring an adorable little bunny that gets lost in the forest, it's something that you could hand to your toddler for entertainment. As for the album itself, well, there's a reason that children's albums tend to be about 20 minutes long. It's not just that children's attention spans are shorter than adults' are, it's that this style of music becomes terribly annoying in large doses. Individual tracks are utterly charming, particularly the opening "Hoppity Jones," which has the dizziness and grace of a classic Raymond Scott tune from the '40s. But the album is just under an hour long, which leads to listener fatigue pretty quickly. Split into two or three listening sessions, the album's charms are more apparent.