I don’t know about you, but back the day, I was all about the mix-tape. My early efforts consisted of diligently sitting in my room listening to The Pepsi Chart Show on a Sunday night, index finger poised over the record button, ready to press down for each song I liked as it came on. Of course the trick was always to try to record a minimal amount of the DJ talking over the track, whilst still getting enough of the track down on tape. Fun times. So when I was approached by online personalised CD store MixPixie.com to review their site and product, I thought it was a genius idea and was delighted to give it a try.
MixPixie.com very kindly sent me two CDs, which they’d compiled on my behalf – with no input from me at all essentially – and I have to say, they did rather a good job.
The first is Songs for the Cox Family (… that’s us!) and is a fun combo of nursery rhymes and kids’ movie soundtracks, so Old Macdonald Had a Farm and Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, are on there alongside You’ve Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story) and Hakuna Matata (The Lion King). Well, to say it’s gone down a storm with Allegra would be an understatement. Basically she LOVES it and every time we now get into the car she DEMANDS that we put it on and there she’ll be in the backseat, singing along at the top of her voice. It’s amazing actually that she’s getting very good at mastering the lyrics to many of the songs (yes, that’s how many times we’ve played it in the last 3-weeks since it arrived!) and it’s hilarious to hear her singing “when I was a young warthooooooooooog!” “and OH the SHHHHHHAME” from Hakuna Matata: comedy moments all round!
The second CD we received is rather appropriately entitled “Keep Calm And Carry On Bianca” (I’m trying…. trust me!) and is a more eclectic mix of songs for the grown-ups. There’s a couple of classical numbers on there, I rather enjoy listening to Le Onde – Ludovico Einaudi, which I wasn’t familiar with before receiving this CD but find rather calming to have on once Allegra has passed out from over-exertion of singing along to Justin Fletcher on the other CD. There are some West End hits (not so much my bag), some pop classics from Stevie Wonder (always a winner) and Angels by Robbie Williams is on there too, and then there are some more up-to-date numbers like the very lovely Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars (love that), Greatest Day by Take That (gotta love a bit of TT), and One Day Like This by Elbow, which is a great song to listen to in the car when you’re bombing driving carefully along the motorway.
MixPixie also gave us a 20% off voucher, so I decided to set to work to put together a CD for Allegra with 10 of her favourite songs right now. She is going to LOVE it, I can hardly wait for her to get her hands on it and for us to get it onto the CD player. So what’s on it you ask? – well, check out the track-list below:
- Candy, Robbie Williams
- One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks), One Direction
- I Like To Move It Move It from Madagascar
- Hakuna Matata, The Lion King
- Live While We’re Young, One Direction
- Beauty & The Beast, Disney Soundtrack
- Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes
- Under The Sea, Little Mermaid
- What Makes You Beautiful, One Direction
- The Duck Song (Lemonade Stand), Bryant Oden
Yes. Quite a mixture. But all songs that she requests me to sing on a daily basis like I’m her personal jukebox. Songs that we sing when she’s having her bath, or when we’re reading one her of many Disney story books or when we’re just having a dance around the living room. And now, we can pop on the CD and have the songs ready to rock whenever we like (without me fumbling about on YouTube or just trying to sing them myself!).
She is going to LOVE this CD. Seriously, love it! And I’ve personalised it with a couple of pics of her too on this rather sweet rainbow themed album cover.
So yes, I highly recommend you check out MixPixie.com because it’s a great fun idea and would make for a fab gift for someone. You can choose an album cover design from the range of designs they have, personalise it with your own wording and in some cases own photos, then you can build your track-list of up to 10 songs. There are over 14 million songs to choose from, so you’re pretty much guaranteed they’ll have what you’re looking for! A simple idea that’s really personal and affordable too. Genius.
Disclosure: MixPixie.com sent us two free CDs for the purposes of this review and a 20% off voucher for us to create our own CD, which I spent £14.91 on including P&P. All opinions are honest and my own.
