Well now, this is different. Not unwelcome either as it has allowed me to utilise an external reviewer for the first time – namely my 5 year old son, Codez. His actual name is Cody but he insists on Codez because, well, that’s just soooo much cooler!

Ngāti Porou musician and entertainer Eden Mulholland is now based in North Brizzie, Queensland, and his EPK makes him sound like the kind of chap I would get on with swimmingly. Dad jokes, music, a houseful of kids? Yep. Solid dude.

Well, Eden is releasing his debut Children’s Music Album, entitled A Bee Might Sting My Nose. Actually, I’m advised that LITTLE BEAR is the artist, and Eden appears to be involved purely as an instrumentalist. Well, if that’s the case, we’ll review the eponymously titled debut single from the album and credit can go to whoever wins Rock, Paper, Scissors. Eden recorded and mixed at his home studio, then Chris Chetland added his considerable engineering chops to master it at Kog Studios.

The single is nicely balanced and instrumentally uncluttered, and is cleverly sung to a familiar tune which helps as an intro song as it triggers familiarity positives in the kids minds. There’s a very easy to follow lyric video on the You Tubes which is actually more than sufficient to pass muster for full commercial broadcasting, as we’re not talking about changing the world via the depth of lyrical content here. This is children’s entertainment. It needs to be bright, engaging, uncluttered and fun. Eden sorry BEAR has succeeded there.

Bear has an unusual vocal timbre, but then, he is a teddybear. Codez tells me that this is really thumbs-up good for “little kids” but is only okay for “bigger kids” like five year old him. I’d say he’s actually pretty much on the button – this has pre-schooler entertainment all over it. It’s actually a surprisingly easy to follow little song at barely over one and a half minutes long, which again is a good time limit for the attention span we’re looking at capturing.

I’d like to see Eden turn the whole album into lyric videos of a similar ilk, albeit hopefully with enough visual variations in to keep the kids attention. Parents? You’ll actually find a basic lesson in how stuff works too, rather nicely delivered in subtle, educational ways.

Commendable effort from a widely talented, respected and well travelled musician. If you have pre-schoolers, this is definitely worth looking at. Great work.