Bob & Larry's Sunday Morning Songs

Had a couple of salad vegetables performed Sunday-school songs in our day the way they do here, we parents might have made it through the weekly churchgoing ritual without the regular reaming by our own moms and dads. Delivering the between-song dialogue and cartoon shenanigans that keep kids from drifting off are Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, who whoop it up from the first track with wah-wah guitar effects, loopy lyrical improv, fellow VeggieTales guest vocalists, and a smattering of big-band swing. A kids' choir provides the starch that saves Sunday morning from becoming a beta-carotene bomb. While Bob twists his tongue around mouthfuls like "the mighty messiah that manifests miracles" in "Down in My Heart," for instance, the kids keep pace for at-home singers, who'll follow suit. Similarly, the child crooners carry on without so much as a snicker as Sgt. Larry barks out "Gimme 20!" in "This is My Commandment" and chimes in with a wacky "No way!" during the "Don't let Satan blow it out" verse of "This Little Light of Mine." The originals "God's Way," "Love Your Neighbor," and "I Believe God Can" capture hummable, child-size chunks of morality, complementing traditionals like "He's Got the Whole World" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children." And once Joshua fights the battle of Jericho and we've washed up in a river of peace, this record swings into section two--the split-track rerun (without the veggie character commentary). Cue it up at the crack of dawn as a pre-service snooze-prevention device--ironically, in Bob and Larry's vitamin-rich hands, church songs become less boring broccoli and more crunchy Cheetos. --Tammy La Gorce