Beautiful Creatures Review/Giveaway

Music just adds happiness to life; it truly does.  Whether you’re doing chores, playing with the kids, or just sitting down to rest, music adds a bit of happiness.  This CD definitely does that well.Beautiful Creatures- Children’s Songs of Africa by Ed Jordan, Allan Glass, and Paul Choritz, is a CD that was created in South Africa in 2004.   They wanted a CD full of music that would be great for parents, as well as their kids.  They also wanted to provide a CD with true South African music and a “positive global message.”

As I listened to this CD, it was honestly a fun, down to earth, peaceful sort of music.  At first, it had almost a reggae type of feeling to it.  Some of the music had kids singing, some had adults.  All of the songs were definitely kid-oriented, but I found myself enjoying right along with my kids.  The songs are educational, in that they tell about different African animals.  Some of the songs even have animal sounds in them.  I found myself laughing through a few of the songs, including one of my favorites, Lucas the Lazy Lion.  The artist makes several sounds through the song, including roaring that my Jaden just loves, and the character of the song just cracks me up.  I love it!  Another couple songs that I loved, probably because of their more calming effects were Down Comes the Rain and African Lullaby.  The song the CD is named after, Beautiful Creatures, definitely carries a strong message of caring for our animals and earth, so that they’re here for future generations.  Here is a complete listing of the songs on Beautiful Creatures:

1. Imvubu the Happiest Hippo
2. Lucas the Lazy Lion
3. Mafutha
4. Zee Bee Dee Bee Dee
5. Wallace the Wonderous Warthog
6. Lorenzo the Luckiest Lizard
7. Down Comes the Rain
8. Beautiful Creatures
9. The Night Song
10. African Lullabye

This is definitely a CD that we will be listening to over and over again; it’s one I can actually enjoy with my kids, and I’m not just saying that.  You can purchase Beautiful Creatures on iTunes; you can purchase each song for download, for 99 cents apiece.  They also have a book available.

Just to give you a bit more info from the producers of this CD:
The last five years have seen the release of seven Beautiful Creatures albums: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, MORE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, featuring fun educational songs about African animals. BEAUTIFUL ME, an album dealing with emotional development for children, tackling issues such as sibling rivalry, anger management, self-confidence and diversity. BEAUTIFUL BEDTIME, songs that take your children through the routine of getting ready for bed. Winding down, bathing, brushing teeth, putting your p-jays on and story time. And BEAUTIFUL CREATURES OF THE SEA, fun sea creature songs that deal with conservation. 2009 saw the release of BEAUTIFUL LULLABIES featuring 10 down tempo songs to get your baby to sleep.

Beautiful Music is giving two MamaBuzz readers a free download of Beautiful Creatures! You can enter to win by doing one or more of the following; just be sure to leave me a separate comment for each way that you enter.  I’ll draw the winner, via random.org, on Tuesday, September 21.  Good luck, and have a wonderful day!

1. Visit Beautiful Music, and let me know which CD you would most like to listen to.
2. Like Beautiful Creatures on Facebook.
3. Follow @beauticreatures on Twitter.
4. Tweet about this giveaway; in fact, you can tweet daily to earn extra entries.
5. Visit the Beautiful Creatures Blog, and leave them a comment.
6. Follow MamaBuzz, or subscribe to our posts.
7. Follow @mamabzz on Twitter.
8. Blog about this giveaway, being sure to link back to both Beautiful Creatures and MamaBuzz.
9. Digg or Stumble this post.
10. Join the MamaBuzz Forum.

(Disclosure: I received a download of Beautiful Creatures, free of charge, from Beautiful Music, for the purposes of this review.)