Todd Snider
Songs For The Daily Planet (Margaritaville/MCA)
by Marc Hirsh
Todd Snider
Songs For The Daily Planet (Margaritaville/MCA)
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in the Rice Thresher, March 24, 1995
What do you do when you're sick to death of the entire Generation X concept but can't decide whether to place the blame on yourself or the folks older than you? When you love who you are but hate who the media expect you to be?
If you're Todd Snider, you write songs about it. Bitter songs. Touching songs. Honest songs. And sarcastic songs.
Especially sarcastic songs. Of all the songs on Songs For The Daily Planet, the ones that work best are the ones where he locks onto a target and just lets fire with all he's got.
All he's got happens to be quite a bit. In a voice reminiscent of X's John Doe and a country-folk hybrid musical style, Snider's key asset is his lyrical ingenuity. Whether he's discussing serious issues such as facing maturity in "I Spoke As A Child," or stabbing at cultural icons in "My Generation (Part 2)," Snider gives his listeners something to think about as well as listen to.
It's always a joy to find intelligence in songs, and Snider's one of the smartest lyricists to come around in a while. In "Trouble," he turns a standard Plannin' On Cheatin' country song into something a bit smarter, filled with gems such as "you're gonna make me do something I'm afraid I won't regret." The same lyrical invention saves other songs, like the get-rich-quick "Easy Money," from being merely mediocre.
It's not only Snider's gift for turning a phrase that marks these as some of the smartest country-folk tunes in some time. When he slows down, he can write some extremely moving songs. Songs like "That Was Me" and "I Spoke As A Child" look reverently back at youth lost, and when the payoff comes in the chilling "You Think You Know Somebody," breathing becomes difficult for fear of breaking the spell.
More impressive than Snider's intelligence is his wit. Not only is this stuff smart, some of it is also devastatingly funny, the type of funny that you don't laugh at just once. It sounds like he just opens his mouth and starts ranting at full speed, and he hits his target almost every time.
The opening "My Generation (Part 2)" is a sarcastic paean to what it means to be young, college-educated and MTV-raised. In a seeming attempt to combat the self-deprecating attitudes of "Creep" and "Loser," Snider gives us "Alright Guy," in which the hero is neither god nor scum but just does the best he can.
Not everything Snider touches turns to gold, though. "Somebody's Coming" suffers from being as preachy as "The Times They Are A-Changin'" without an ounce of its sincerity or drive. "A Lot More" and "This Land Is Our Land" are both too obvious and preachy to successfully convey their messages against materialism and rampant "progress."
There is, of course, the very real possibility that Snider is doing this on purpose. Part of the fun of the album is trying to figure out what's serious and what's not. "Turn It Up" might be just another dumb song about how great it is to rock and roll. Or, if you like, you could grab onto lines like "don't wanna hear what I'm thinkin' tonight" and figure that he's making fun of these types of songs.
The best track on the album is the closing "Seattle Grunge Rock Blues," an extremely funny ramble through one band's effort to become the Next Big Thing. It would be a delicious slice of sarcasm if it weren't for one problem: the track's unlisted. Using such a blatantly Alternative tactic reeks of hypocrisy. Or is it irony? It's hard to tell. But it sure is funny.
What makes Snider so damn refreshing is that doesn't offer any solutions, he's happy enough just to point out what's bothering him. If Songs For The Daily Planet is what he's capable of before he gets burned by the record industry, I can't wait to see what he comes up with when he gets really bitter.