Many of you will probably have heard of this project by now, and it is certainly a remarkable proposition; Rewiggled: A Tribute to the Wiggles gathers together twenty of Australia’s most popular artists from the last ten years and has each of them tackle a song from the catalogue of the world’s most popular children’s group.

Twenty Wiggles songs may sound like a lot for your everyday music fan who may not fall into their usual demographic, i.e. ages 3-7, but the average song length here is around the two minute mark, and these mostly upbeat versions are attacked with energy and joy.

In fact, part of what makes this collection distinctive is the level of fun the artists appear to be having, in a kind of “can you believe we’re doing this” way. The obvious silly factor of the project is matched with great musicianship, with each of the bands/artists putting their own creative spin on the material with some frankly impressive results.

It becomes evident early on that the simplistic nature of basic rock and pop structures, specifically meaning 1960s blues based rock and rhythm and blues, means that these children’s songs very naturally transform into something quite cool, when placed in the right hands.

The Living End open the disc with their 50’s rock n’roll take on “Hot Potato”, managing to successfully blend their own style whilst maintaining the melody and mindless optimism of the original. Track two has Washington sounding positively sultry on “The Monkey Dance”, purring her way through a 60s bubblegum pop make-over that you could shake your thang and ‘do the monkey’ to.

Adalita’s “Get Ready To Wiggle” is one of the best examples of taking the Wiggles lyrics and making them seem less one dimensional, simply by changing their context. In this case, Adalita’s broody guitar version is effective enough to distract the listener of the fact that, behind all that attitude, she is still actually telling us to wiggle our hands and wiggle our toes.

Tribute albums and concerts seems to be extremely popular at the moment, with many of the artists present on this disc having also appeared on the three Finn Brothers She/He/They Will Have Their Way albums, and the Triple J produced tributes for Paul Kelly and Nick Cave. One of the main complaints with this collection is the lack of stylistic variety between the featured artists, who largely fall into a Triple J-endorsed pop/rock category.

Consequently, there is a high ratio of rock n’roll versions, which all work well, and for the first few tracks the novelty of hearing a fast rock version of “Getting Stronger!” (Jebediah) and “Captain’s Magic Buttons” (Frenzal Rhomb) is enjoyable.

However, in order to lift the concept beyond the mere novelty, a little more deviation would have been interesting. For instance inviting The Herd, Gotye or Oscar + Martin, could have yielded something less guitar orientated to further differentiate the simplistic nature of the original songs and created a more well balanced record.

For an example, check out Sampology’s excellent remix of “Fruit Salad”, which was an enjoyable part of the Youtube promo campaign, but was left off the album in favour of Steve Lane and The Autocrats’, also good, version, although it does appear as a bonus on the Itunes release.

Some of the most impressive moments of the disc come when the artists have made radical departures and innovated from the original tracks. Busby Marou’s breezy folk take on “Dressing Up” sounds like something off the first Paul Simon record, while Sarah Blasko’s “I Love it When It Rains” is just plain pretty.

Of the rock versions Papa Vs. Pretty’s “Can You (Point Your Fingers and Do the Twist?)” and Oh Mercy’s “Toot, Toot, Chugga, Chugga, Big Red Car” prove that simply by treating the material with respect it is possible to achieve something quite catchy and fun, and adding the occasional “baby” and some kick-arse guitar parts don’t hurt either.

Architecture in Helsinki’s “Wiggly Party” sounds like it could be closer to a tribute to The Venga Boys or Aqua, complete with cheesy synths, a chunky beat and silly voices. In this case it seems like the band decided to take the piss out of the material somewhat, which is arguably not necessary as the entire project is a slightly tongue in cheek proposition, albeit an affectionate one, and musically theirs is the least interesting.

Dead Letter Chorus’ “Wiggle Bay” lands somewhere in the middle by keeping everything bright and upbeat and the result is a bit naff, similarly Angie Hart’s "Our Boat is Rocking on the Sea"’s 1980’s treatment doesn’t quite carry the sing-song nature of the melody.

The Snowdropper’s blues-rock take on “Wags The Dog” is a treat, as is Sons of Rico’s “Shaky Shaky”, but it is the closing track that deserves special mention. “Georgia’s Song”, by Clare Bowditch is almost a dirge, a very solemn yet beautiful reading, proving that there really are hundreds of ways to interpret a song. It’s a great way to close off the collection and one of the highlights.

The various artists collected here have excelled themselves in taking on a project such as this and making it work in interesting ways, managing to raise it above being either simply a novelty or record solely for children. Fun for the whole family, and so close to Christmas!

Review Score: 7/10