"I performed for my class last week," says Alexander. "Yeah, the kids in my class all laughed about the Dad Penguin regurgitating the Christmas dinner, and the Llamas greeting you with "Feliz Navidad" before they spit at you, but it actually teaches geographical concepts, the polar hemispheres, the equator, and on a more subtle note, inferencing.

"You'll notice the animals, their habitats, and their mannerisms are described prior to it being revealed in the chorus. That kind of reading skill, inferencing, foreshadowing if you like, was also part of the design of that song."

Further subject matter for the album includes the tale of a dung beetle in love and the journey of sound waves to your eardrums.

Composing the album has given Alexander a chance to relax, to not take himself so seriously. He mentioned axing a track from his last album, Mayhem Vaudville, that was an avant garde rendition of turn-of-the-20th-century French poetry.

"It was just too over the top," he says. "Too weird. I couldn't think of anyone else who would want to listen to it but me. I find it liberating that in putting this abum together I don't have to take myself seriously at all."

The album is due out next summer, with Alexander's daughters performing backing vocals.

Jef With One F is the author of The Bible Spelled Backwards Does Not Change the Fact That You Cannot Kill David Arquette and Other Things I Learned In the Black Math Experiment, available now.