Adventures in Agapeland: The Music Machine - chapters five through nine

Last time in the only Agapeland chapter book ever, in a story-within-a-story, Stevie and Nancy found themselves in Agapeland, met Mr. Conductor and went to bed in a giant tree, all while something was being plotted in the land of Aire.

Chapter V - An Evil Deed
As the title promises, this chapter details Mr. Pimms' evil plan. Which starts at twilight, with Mr. Pimms and the Pudgians heading toward the river, although the narrator acts like he's never seen them before. The Pudgians wonder how they're planning to get across the river into Agapeland, since the only way is the King's Ferry, and obviously, there's no disguising themselves. This isn't really built on, but evidently Aireians are not allowed in Agapeland. But Mr. Pimms happens to know a guy named Boodle who runs a barge across the river, although this guy is not too pleased to see Pimms. Seems the last time they crossed paths, things didn't go well for Boodle, so he charges Mr. Pimms three times the usual fee. Also, Boodle talks with lots of 'ye' and 'thee' phrasings for no good reason. Seriously, nobody else talks like this in the entire book.
Boodle gets them across the river in an old, grody barge and Mr. Pimms is all "I'll be the most respected person in Aire when this is done!" as he sends the Pudgians off to get supplies for the task at hand. And so the Pudgians take to the trees, since they're adept swingers as it were, and find a small farm where they steal a tarse (a kind of pack animal) and a cart. With the cart, they make their way to a village and steal a bunch of supplies (ropes and the like), then continue on their way. Before they make it to the arranged meeting place, they hear two of the Royal Guards (dressed in blue and silver) talking about the recent robbery, and so they set up a trap, which the guards fall into rather readily. They tie up the guards and question them, but the guards aren't talking, so they hide the two men in the bushes and move on. The Pudgians finally get to the meadow and see "it" (I'm sure you know what it is), and start getting cold feet, but Mr. Pimms shows up and ends the chapter.

Chapter VI - The Riddle
The majority of this chapter is really a dream that Stevie and Nancy share, a dream full of foreshadowing! Basically, they dream that Agapeland is dying, Nancy almost falls down a deep pit, and a bird shows up and sings them a song about faith. And they hear the voice of Majesty tell them, "When the problems seem bigger/Than mountains so high/Remember the song/Of the sparrow and fly!" This will be important later.
And then they wake up, all "Phew, it was only a dream!" But then Stevie opens the door of the tree and Agapeland really is dying, although not as extremely as in their dream.

Chapter VII - Two on the Trail
Stevie and Nancy are still in shock at dying Agapeland, especially since it's the first day of the festival! How shocking! *cough cough* So they go to look for Mr. Conductor, hoping for some answers. As they reach the meadow, they find the Conductor in despair, and notice a hole where the Music Machine should be. The kids naturally ask the obvious questions, and Mr. Conductor explains that the Music Machine has been stolen! Obviously someone from Aire is behind it, and I'd say that's stereotyping if we didn't know he was right. And so he goes to get instructions from Majesty, leaving the kids behind.
Not the type to just be left behind, Stevie suggests they try to solve the crime themselves, and they start looking for clues, easily finding the wagon tracks (the machine has to be seriously heavy). They follow the tracks, hoping to catch up with the culprits, but they get tired and take a break. That's when they hear something in the bushes and uncover the Royal Guardsmen. Stevie ungags them and they introduce themselves as Majesty's Attendants. The kids untie the attendants, introduce themselves, and fill the attendants in on the Music Machine's disappearance. The attendants instantly realize that the ruffians who tied them up must have been after the machine, and tell the kids all they know. Like Mr. Conductor, they plan to go and get instructions from Majesty, but don't plan on taking the kids with them. Stevie tells them that's quite all right, since they're on the trail and all. So one of the attendants tells them the best way to get into Aire, and sends them in the direction of his friend Jakar, who can give them more information. They prepare to part ways, but the attendant also warns them of Prince Nakel, the evil ruler of Aire. Judging from his warning, you might expect the prince to show up in the story sooner than he does, but no, he doesn't show up for another six chapters. With that, the attendants take off with such speed that Stevie decides he wants to be one when he grows up.
It takes them all day to get to Jakar's house, traveling through a rapidly deteriorating Agapeland. Jakar is apparently a half-giant, like Hagrid from the Harry Potter series, at least that's how the description sounded to me. The kids introduce themselves as friends of the attendants, and fill Jaker in on the sordid details of the stolen Music Machine. He invites them in and introduces them to his wife, Blessing, a woman way too beautiful to be a farmwife. She feeds them, and when the meal is almost done, something starts crawling up Nancy's leg. It's a Huggit, according to Jakar, named Bundle, basically fur with legs that dies if it cannot lavish affection on something. It attaches itself to Nancy, and the two kids go to bed, while the narrator ominously tells us this is the last good night's sleep they'll get for a while.

Chapter VIII - Mr. Pimms' Plans
Going back in time to earlier that day, Mr. Pimms is having trouble getting the cart with the Music Machine to stay steady on the barge, and the tarse causes so much damage that Boodle charges another 50 silver pieces, wiping Mr. Pimms' money supply clean out.
Back on dry land, Pimms' exults in the first part of his plan going over, granted with a few hitches. But the fact of the matter is, they're going to need money to continue, so Mr. Pimms comes up with another plan, a more short-term one. By the time they reach the nearest town, he's got it down pat. But first, they all rest in a grove outside the town and finally get some sleep (I was starting to wonder. I mean, the Pudgians got some sleep on the cart but Mr. Pimms has been going nonstop since the previous night).
Anyway, the plan is simple. Mr. Pimms sends the Pudgians out after midnight to steal both food and instruments from the Band Master's shop. The first part goes all right, but of course stealing the instruments gets noisy, and the Band Master wakes up, so they tie him up and stuff him in a wardrobe. In a move that's actually fairly clever for a Pudgian, Growdy puts up a sign saying the shop will be closed all day, so no one will come looking.
The Pudgians keep the trouble they had from Mr. Pimms, who is optimistic about the next part of his plan: with the tarse and Pudgians dressed up, they drive into the town of Chartsan on Market Day, put on a show, and get money for showing off the Music Machine. A good plan that almost works, except that a banker recognizes Mr. Pimms's magic tricks (involving his pet rat, who I've been leaving out of the summary). Apparently the last time Mr. Pimms was there, he scammed the villagers with a medicine man routine (something like Dr. Tewilliger from Pete's Dragon, I'm assuming). And then the Band Master shows up, screaming about thieves, and the passengers of the cart beat a hasty retreat with the angry crowd chasing them for quite a ways.
After a good long while, they finally outrun the crowd, but their money situation is still in the dumps. The Pudgians start to get disillussioned with Mr. Pimms' master plan, but he nips any thoughts of rebellion in the bud. Meanwhile, the tarse is so tired out that they have to leave it behind and pull the wagon themselves. Mr. Pimms delegates this to Snard and Boogwart, who complain behind his back, although Snard sagely predicts that the worst is yet to come.

Chapter IX - Journey Into the Mountains
And we're back with the kids, just waking up after their last good night's sleep in a while. Downstairs, Blessing gives them breakfast and Jakar gives them directions through the mountains (he'd go with them, but his job is to watch the foot of the mountains, and it's extra important that he do it now). They also give Bundle to Nancy, since it won't detach itself from her arm, except to eat. With a bag of provisions, they start off on their journey.
Agapeland is just more and more dead by the second, so they get a move on. They follow a stream (which the narrator mentions is fed by "the legendary Crystal Springs, but that is another story") that will take them to a bridge, which will lead them to the Migadawsh Mountains. But when they get to the bridge, they find their way is blocked by a giant snail! It is Herbert the Snail, but not the one of the song, that's his great grandfather. In fact, Herbert sings the entire song to the kids when he finds out they're in a hurry (this takes up a little over a page). It isn't until the song is over that the kids learn that Herbert is actually stuck in the bridge. Stevie and Nancy push him from the front, but he's too slippery (he is a snail, after all), so he lets them climb over him so they can push from behind. Fortunately, that works, and the kids start on their way. But it's only after all that that Herbert thinks to ask why they're in such a hurry, and they explain the whole story. Herbert decides to come with them and gets stuck in the bridge again, even though the kids try to warn him. So they get him unstuck again, and they all get on their way.
Everywhere they go, they're reminded of the death and decay coming to Agapeland. By eveningtide, they spot a campfire, and with further investigation, a whole campground, but no one in it. Only, it turns out to be an ambush! A menacing voice warns them to put their hands up and threatens them vaguely, and the chapter ends.

And so does this post. I'll have the next bit of summaries up sooner, so you won't be in suspense for too long.

Adventures in Agapeland: The Music Machine, chapters one through four

Because this is the kind of thing I do, I bought the book of The Music Machine on eBay. I mentioned before that I encountered it once, but that was at least ten years ago, so while I basically remembered the plot, I didn't really know the specifics. So here it is, The Music Machine by Samuel Wright, fifteen chapters, 142 pages, one illustration per chapter.

Chapter One - The Forest
The whole thing begins as a story-within-a-story as Stevie and Nancy implore their grandfather to tell them a story. So he pulls a book off the shelf and starts reading them a story about themselves. In this story, Stevie and Nancy are sitting on a hill, making up stories, when Nancy decides she wants to explore the nearby woods, so they both roll down the hill and end up not in Wiley Woods but someplace else entirely. This place is described in tons of detail, which is fine and all, but I know they're in Agapeland (and the kids at home do, too, since they specifically asked for a story about Agapeland), so I'd rather Mr. Wright cut to the chase. Anyway, Nancy wants to explore, but Stevie would rather stay where they are than get lost, but he goes along eventually. And they encounter birds and butterflies, but nobody else, and Stevie starts to hear music that Nancy can't, although she does hear it eventually. While they follow the music, Nancy concludes that the forest is enchanted, which is something she'll bring up about just about everything she encounters throughout the book, so I'm just mentioning it now. Finally they reach a clearing, which Nancy insists is a Royal Meadow, and they see something that they have no clue what it is. They don't get to find out, either, because we go straight to

Chapter Two - Mr. Pimms

In an entirely different forest, late in the afternoon, a bunch of short, ugly figures are sitting by a fire. Then a dapper young man in a top hat comes out of the woods and starts yelling at them for making a fire while the sun is still out. They are Boogwart, Snard, and Growdy, three Pudgians, and he is Mr. Pimms of the chapter title, apparently a human. The point of this chapter is to introduce this crew, since they will soon be setting the plot in motion. The Pudgians are not very smart and rather uncouth, but Mr. Pimms is by all appearances a gentleman, even dressed in an ascot, with a prized ring that he wears under his gloves. Which is what you would do if you wore gloves all the time, but I never thought about it before. He also has a pet rat named Oswald.
Their meeting is to discuss how to pull off a vaguely referred to "plan," which Mr. Pimms masterminded. He plies them with flattery, and the drink doesn't hurt, either. The chapter ends with them vaguely finalizing their plans, and going their separate ways.

Chapter Three - The Music Machine

I'd really rather not get back to the kids, but the story has to proceed, and it really can't until they find out what that thing they saw in the first chapter is, so here we are, back with Stevie and Nancy as they try to figure out just what this treasure chest with a smoke stack, buttons, and levers is all about. Nancy thinks it must make candy and Stevie gets mad her, convinced this is a machine for SCIENCE! And then Nancy starts pushing all the buttons but nothing happens, so Stevie's all "I will solve this with SCIENCE!" but he doesn't do any better than she did. Nothing they do works, and it's starting to get dark. So Stevie's all "I wanted to stay where we were, and now we're lost in an enchanted forest," to Nancy, and then they hear something coming, and it takes forever to get there. Long enough for Nancy to freak out three times and for them to hide behind the chest. And something touches Stevie's head...

Chapter Four - A Pleasant Surprise

The kids freak for another two paragraphs before finally they turn around see Mr. Conductor, who, like on the album, introduces himself at The Conductor. Also like on the album, he already knows Stevie and Nancy, and so they press him for answers about where they are and how they got there. He answers the obvious one (they're in Agapeland) but never actually tells them how they got there. Stevie's more interested in how they'll get back, but Mr. Conductor assures them that they'll go home when the time is right and nobody will ever know they were gone. How very C.S. Lewis. After finding out that Mr. Conductor (along with "many interesting people") lives in the forest, Nancy gets it in her head that he's some kind of prince, and Stevie finally connects that the thing that touched his head at the end of the last chapter is the same stick Mr. Conductor is holding. Mr. Conductor explains that it's a baton that he uses to conduct music, and the kids remember what lead to this whole encounter: the music they heard in the forest. So finally Mr. Conductor tells them that the contraptions is the Music Machine and it was what made the music they heard.
The narrator explains how the Music Machine is what brings life to Agapeland, and that without it, the land would die, but it's okay because nothing's ever happened to it. *cough cough* foreshadowing *cough cough* And Mr. Conductor tells them how to use the Music Machine, and to demonstrate he sticks an antique musical note (made out of what? It isn't specified) in the machine, and it makes the usual noises before playing its theme song. Mr. Conductor conducts during the song, but since it's a machine, does that really do any good? Also, the lyrics are part of the text. This happens anytime a song is mentioned, with the copyright information appearing at the bottom of the page.
After the song, Mr. Conductor invites the kids to put something in, but all they have is a piece of string, but Mr. Conductor puts it in anyway, all smug, and the String Song from the album plays. When the string comes out, Stevie puts it back in his pocket, thinking it might be useful someday. Foreshadowing? (I don't remember. Sorry.) So they spend the rest of the day putting things in the Music Machine, but eventually it gets dark. Mr. Conductor tells them he has a place for them to sleep, but first he has to polish the entire Music Machine, since Stevie and Nancy got their fingerprints all over it. While he does this, there's more foreshadowy talk about how important the Music Machine is, and Mr. Conductor tells them about an upcoming festival (in the season of Dosca *_*) where they get Sacred Writings that go in the Music Machine and create the music for another year. These documents MUST be put in by the seventh day of the festival, or else. Also, the documents come from Majesty, the king (and apparently creator) of all Agapeland.
Then there's a lot of going through Agapeland description that I'm skipping before they get to a clearing where Mr. Conductor has the kids plant a seed. He pours some water of the seed and BLAMMO! It grows into a huge tree with a house inside. Inside the house is their dinner, and while they eat Mr. Conductor warns them about that other place, the Anti-Agapeland, called Aire (Kingdom of the Air, eh? I'm not sure if that's clever or just blatant.) Then he tucks the kids into bed, promising to show them more of Agapeland tomorrow. But the narrator warns us that evil is afoot...

And that's about all I can take right now. I'll get the next few chapters up in a couple of days.

My childhood: Agapeland

I was killing time in Walmart when I just happened to see it: a 2-CD set in a tin of The Music Machine and its sequel (not the third one, though) for just ten dollars. So I bought it. I want to say it's for the nostalgia value, but the thing is, I never listened to the Music Machine albums before. Oh, I was familiar with the set-up. I had almost all the Agapeland videos when I was a kid, and I had the cassettes of Nathaniel the Grublet and the Music Machine Club album (which is not the same, mind you), plus I'd seen the animated versions (The Music Machine and Benny's Biggest Battle) and had a couple of the Character Builder book and tape sets. In fact, what really made me buy the CD set was that it promised a bonus DVD with four of the Character Builder stories on it. This turned out to be a LIE. It was a completely different DVD from somebody else's childhood (The Amazing Book related. I was never into that series). I contacted the company about this, but they haven't gotten back to me. Also, the images used on the tin and CDs and booklet are from the animated version, which features characters that don't appear on the albums at all.

And because I seem to be incapable of taking in any media these days without getting the urge to write up a synopsis for it (with sprinklings of commentary), here are volumes one and two of The Music Machine.
Note: The discs from this set are in the opposite order. Disc One is actually Volume Two, and vice versa. But I'm going in chronological order. Just so you know.

The Music Machine: The Fruit of the Spirit (from 1977!)
The album starts off with a longish instrumental intro to the first song "A Land Called Love." The song, once it gets going, is pretty slow and lullaby-ish. I really wouldn't have started off with such a slow song, but it is rather pretty in the bridge. Once the song ends, Stevie and Nancy, the two kids synonymous with Agapeland, have their first appearance, wondering where the heck they are. They have no clue how they got there, but they like what they see. With a magical twinkle, Mr. Conductor arrives (note that he actually introduces himself as The Conductor), apparently out of nowhere. He already knows Stevie and Nancy, and tells them they're in Agapeland. He fences their questions on where Agapeland is and what he does ("I do a lot of things"), but fortunately, the kids are quickly distracted by the titular machine itself, leading to the titular introduction song, of course, which starts off with a bit of music I recognize from the trailer for the Agapeland Home Videos, so it's kind of weird to have it not continue as I remember it. The song itself is fairly uptempo, and it wins me over by the musicalizations in the second verse, although the middle section could be left out. I also remember the kazoo part at the end as being the ending of the Agapeland Home Video Trailer, so it's nice to finally know where that comes from.
Although he just explained in song, Mr. Conductor explains again: put something in the Music Machine and it'll play a song about it. To demonstrate, he puts in his whistle and the Music Machine starts making noise. Now, that middle section of the previous song mentioned the sounds that the Music Machine makes before starting a song as "whir whir chuka chuka bomp bomp psst." I thought that was just onomatopoeia, but no, the sounds the machine makes are actually a bunch of voices saying those words set to a high pitch and slightly mechanized. The song that comes out, "The Whistle Song" features both fifes and whistling, and lists all the things, animate and inanimate, that whistle, and posits that they're singing songs of praise. It's actually kind of jazzy, in a kids' chorus kind of way.
All the songs on the two albums are sung by either the kids' chorus, random soloists (both kids and adults), Mr. Conductor, or some combination thereof, by the way. After the song, Stevie notes that the whistle came back out of the machine, and Nancy wishes she had something to put in. Mr. Conductor tells her to smile into the machine's slot, and sure enough, a song about Smiles comes out. This is the most kiddy sounding of all the songs, really, and feels slightly offtune to me, but I think it's supposed to be, in a carousel wurlitzer style.
Nancy loved her song, but Stevie is quick to put something in himself: a piece of string, which inspires a madrigal about the things string can and can't do (fix a friendship, for example). Since the machine has suddenly turned educational, Mr. Conductor proposes that they put in a verse from the Bible to see what songs come out. He means Galatians 5:19-23, which is about the Fruit of the Spirit. Nancy misinterprets this as real fruit, so he lists a few off to clarify. And then the verse is put in, and the machine just about breaks down from the sound of it. The first song starts, and then there's a crash. Guess the machine really did break. No, wait, that's just part of the song. The first song is "Patience (Herbert the Snail)," which is the one everyone remembers, from what I've seen online. Probably because the chorus vocals are slowed way down, which kind of annoys me now, but I'm sure if I were a kid would be hilarious.
There's no break between the first and next song, "Gentleness" (which is the longest song, btw), one of the random soloists plus kids chorus songs. Very soft and gentle, naturally, although the examples of gentleness seem more like peace to me. After that song, Nancy declares she understands about the fruit thing now (although I don't really get how, since the songs haven't really been talking about applying them to your life or anything, just what each one is). And Stevie makes a terrible joke which everyone laughs at, but I'll forgive them, since the kids are just kids after all, and Mr. Conductor is obviously just pity-laughing. Mr. Conductor gets the machine going again, and there's a rousing number about Faith that I wish was longer, even though the lyrics are pretty much the same thing over and over.
The next song, "Joy" is all calypso and apparently sung by a teens' chorus (that's the nearest I can figure, anyway). There's a bit of a pointless interlude between this song and the next, "Peace," where a kid soloist sings of the things that bring peace in a child's life, which is immediately followed by a country-western song about Goodness that merely talks about random things that are good and expects this to show why we should be good. The next song, "Love," starts with a funky kind of intro before turning into a twangy duet. After this, the kids take a break to enumerate which Fruits there have been songs about (seven) and Mr. Conductor informs them that there are two more to go, so the machine gets going once more with a song about Self-Control. Now, in my youth, I did see the book that accompanied the record of this album, basically the lyrics with illustrations. The only one I remember was the pictures for this song, which freaked me out something terrible back then. Thinking on it now, I just feel bad for Stevie, since the illustrations (as I recall anyway) showed the bad things that happened to him from lack of self-control, even though the singer is a random adult. The last song, "Kindness," is one of the more interesting ones, as it plays out as a Caribbean lullaby, basically stating that kindness begets kindness. It's also the second-longest song, with more instrumentals than the others.
Once the last song is over, Mr. Conductor basically just sends Stevie and Nancy away, and they don't even protest! I mean, they mysteriously ended up in this amazing place and all they did was listen to some songs, and now they have to go without seeing hardly anything! Besides, don't the kids in that kind of situation (mysteriously in a strange place, I mean) usually say things like "Do we have to?" when it's time to leave? Anyway, they say their goodbyes and fade away (their voices do anyway), and Mr. Conductor states, "They'll be back." As a cynical adult, I'd like to imagine him saying this darkly, under his breath, almost a threat. Before we can consider the implications of his statement, a reprise of the titular introduction song starts up from the kazoo part, ending the album. The whole thing is a little over thirty minutes, by the way.
Songs that get stuck in my head: The Whistle Song, Music Machine, Patience (such an earworm!)
You can actually see the pages from the booklet that came with the record here, courtesy of the only Agapeland fansite.

The next album didn't come out until 1983, six years later. This one won a Grammy and a Dove award, which is pretty cool. I also like it a little better than the first album because it reveals that Mr. Conductor is kind of, well, adorkable, if you know what I mean. I probably won't do justice to this in the synopsis, because it's all in the little things.

The Music Machine: All About Love
Like the first album, this one starts with a slow song, "When Love Lives in Your Heart," but unlike the first album, after the first verse and chorus, Stevie and Nancy arrive, remarking on how they are somehow in Agapeland again, and they go off in search of the Music Machine to find out where the song is coming from. (BTW, the random adult soloist has an annoying way of singing.)
Stevie and Nancy easily spot Mr. Conductor working on the Music Machine. They want to help, but Mr. Conductor says he's just doing "a little work," prompting Nancy to ask what's wrong with the machine. Mr. Conductor tells her, "Well, nothing really," in a tone that indicates (to me) that something is wrong, and he's just covering up by saying he's giving it a tune-up. The Music Machine springs to life and plays a song about tune-ups of its own volition. Twangy guitars feature heavily here. By the end of the song, Mr. Conductor is ready to test the machine, but the kids want to be the ones to put something in. Stevie and Nancy confer, and decide to ask the Music Machine a question. Mr. Conductor has no objections, so they proceed: What's the most wonderful, spectacular, colossal, super, fantastic, stupendous thing in all Agapeland? While the Music Machine does its thing (you know, the whirs and all that), Stevie and Nancy hypothesize about what the answer will be, but the song that comes out ("The Greatest Thing of All") shoots down all their ideas quite specifically and instead says that the greatest thing is Love. Which makes sense, since that's what Agapeland is named for. This song is very fun-sounding with a driving backbeat.
Stevie wants to know why the answer was Love, so Mr. Conductor informs him that God Is Love. Suddenly, the Music Machine starts up on its own again, causing Mr. Conductor to proclaim, "I thought I fixed that!" which proves what I said earlier. This song ("Love Never Fails") is my favorite from this album, even though the lyrics are not the greatest. But the actual music gets me every time. It's kind of odd, but there's a lot of the things I love, like clarinets and oboes, plus the random adult soloist sounds good, which is a plus.
After the song, the Music Machine tries to play another song, but shuts down completely. Mr. Conductor insists it isn't broken, it just needs some "adjustments." So he tinkers a little and a song comes out ("Glad to be Me"), sung by a random kid soloist with a terrible twangy accent, all about how animals don't want to be like other animals, so we should be glad to be ourselves. The Music Machine keeps going, with a strange country western duet about things that go together (some choices are questionable, such as "Like a yankee and a doodle") to illustrate that "I Was Made For Love."
Stevie and Nancy take all these songs as signs that the Music Machine is good as new, and remark on how they're learning a lot about love, when suddenly strange noises come from all directions. And then there's a noticeable break where it must have been time to turn over the record. Mr. Conductor reveals that the sounds are Sloops, but when the kids ask what the heck Sloops are, he answers with a not very revealing song that mostly names a lot of random things that Sloops are made of (Stevie and Nancy's favorite things, apparently), and the most important part is love. While talking about the Sloops (colorful, carrying flowers), Stevie and Nancy start slipping into a twangy accent for no apparent reason. The Sloops introduce themselves: they all have names that start with B, although whether this is actually Bea (Stevie later asks why they all have the same first name) or B. (Mr. Conductor refers to them as the B family) isn't really clear. Most of their names are standard puns (Be Kind, Be Patient), but they do throw in a couple of nonstandard ones as well (Be Haves and Be Lieves). Nancy asks the Sloops to put something in the Music Machine, and B. Humble is the first to come up. With Mr. Conductor's permission, he puts in his flower, and a song about a Humble Bumblebee comes out, sung by another random kid soloist who is only partially comprehensible. The fast clip of the song doesn't help, either.
Stevie wonders if there are more Sloops out there, and Mr. Conductor tells him that there are indeed, but the ones they're with now are all reminders of what love is supposed to be like. To that end, he invites B. Faithful to put one of her flowers in the Music Machine. The "I Love You" song is another random kid soloist song, a prayer listing all the things she loves, especially God. Mr. Conductor starts to explain the song, but B. Patient interrupts him, asking "What about Herbert the snail?" Unable to elaborate, Mr. Conductor has to translate: do the kids remember Herbert the snail? To prove they do, Stevie and Nancy sing a snippet of the song from the previous album. Satisfied, Mr. Conductor calls forth a new song about Herbert ("Love Waits a Long, Long Time") and his mother (obviously a man doing a fake falsetto), which is catchy in its own, kinda smarmy, way.
With that song out of the way, the other Sloops crowd around Mr. Conductor, each wanting to put their flower in the slot. So Mr. Conductor suggests having everyone put their flowers in all at once, since the Music Machine is working again, just to see what'll happen. I get the feeling that this is how the Music Machine broke in the first place. The Sloops cheer, toss in their flowers, and from the sounds the machine makes, it nearly breaks again, and when a very twangy country western song comes out, I'm not so sure it didn't break. The song ("Everybody Needs a Lot of Love") states the things you can't do to love, but we still need it. It also includes the unfortunate couplet: "You can't mop it like a floor/Can't stop it like a door/You can't keep it like a horse in a stall," with the word "horse" drawn out so that it sounds like something else before the end kicks in. This song leads immediately into another, "I Love You, Lord Jesus," with the kids' chorus.
After those two songs, Stevie and Nancy once again remark that they've learned a lot about love, and Mr. Conductor reminds them not to forget, since it'll come in handy soon. But he refuses to explain what he means by this. Instead, he tells them it's time to go home, and distracts them with a reprise of "The Greatest Thing of All." During the song, Stevie and Nancy find themselves leaving Agapeland (I want to know exactly what's going on. Are they teleporting, being lifted in the air, or what?), and they wish everyone goodbye as a reprise of "When Love Lives in Your Heart" by an adult chorus (and the random adult soloist) swells and closes the album.
Songs that get stuck in my head: The Greatest Thing of All, Love Never Fails, I Was Made for Love, Everybody Needs a Lot of Love.

All in all, these albums are pretty cute, and the songs are very apt to get stuck in your head. Don't be too surprised if you see some other Agapeland-related stuff pop up here or on Youtube, now that my nostalgia's been piqued...
By the way, here's Love Never Fails.