Pitchfork

So in July when we reported that Belle and Sebastian's Mick Cooke was curating a children's benefit compilation, Colours Are Brighter, for non-profit organization Save the Children, we didn't know if this would end up being awesome or embarrassing for all parties involved.

Turns out it's pretty awesome.

Six tracks, Belle and Sebastian's "The Monkeys Are Breaking out of the Zoo", Four Tet feat. Princess Watermelon's "Go Go Ninja Dinosaur", Franz Ferdinand's "Jackie Jackson", Snow Patrol's "I Am an Astronaut", the Kooks' "The King and I", and Jonathan Richman's "Our Dog Is Getting Older Now" popped up on the Colours Are Brighter website recently, and they're nothing short of fantastic. You can also hear the Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, Four Tet, and Snow Patrol songs on the comp's MySpace page, and can download the Four Tet song from the comp's site.

Colours Are Brighter will be released on October 16 via Rough Trade.

The B&S number is packed with sound effects-- from snoring to flea noises, it's all there. Lyrically, the plot features monkeys escaping from the zoo, hailing taxis, riding bikes, swimming in rivers, flying kites, and more. "We recorded the song at our own studio in Glasgow," says Cooke of "Monkeys", on the Colours website. "This turned out to be a lot of fun, as I found myself chucking bricks into Glasgow's river Kelvin, minidisc recorder in hand, and screaming like a monkey with Chris and Richard."

Franz Ferdinand choose to focus on consequences of greed and gluttony. They tell the story of a boy, Jackie Jackson, who eats over 200 cakes ("looooooooooads of cakes"), develops a "large expanding gut," and eventually explodes. Of course, Jackie's unfortunate fate is paired with a fart noise.

"When I was a kid I hated songs that were too nice," Alex Kapranos said, "I didn't care about whether the wheels on the bus went round or if we were going to the zoo tomorrow. Me and my brother used to make up revolting words for pop songs instead. I used to love stories that were gory, particularly Roald Dahl, Shock Headed Peter and Grimm Fairy Tales. Jackie Jackson is from that world-- he's a horrible boy who meets a horrible end."

The Four Tet song is a spacey funk number with jungle-esque drums and someone named Princess Watermelon on vocals. Pretty much the only words she utters are "Go Go Ninja Dinosaur," but toward the end, things get going a bit more, and we hear, "The cosmic winds blow. Ninja D flies in his spaceship on a mission to bring the boogie beat to all the universe."

Kieran Hebden explained, "Ninja Dinosaur is on a heavy cosmic quest to bring the boogie for the 76th millennium. He has the guidance of his mega strobe 9000 lightning finger and the 539 giga magic drum machine. He pushed all the funk buttons in his spaceship and it created Princess Watermelon...a girl so beautiful and with a message of hope and luck for his quest. Using the mighty power of his nuclear dream processor a recording studio of ultimate style was made and the 15 inch chrome super tape switched to record. The beat kicked in and she sang and sang and sang the news to the children."

Of course.