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  • Release Date:
The Excitement Plan Image
Metascore
83

Universal acclaim - based on 9 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 5 Ratings

  • Summary: The latest album for the alt-country singer was produced by Don Was.

Top Track

Money, Compliments, Publicity
A man once said that the pinnacle of success Was when you finally lost interest In money, compliments and publicity A noble enough idea I... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Beneath the disheveled exterior is an ace storyteller with a Raymond Carver-esque gift for mapping out the troubled contours of a character’s life with a few well-chosen details.
  2. For a principled slacker like Snider, diffidence is an aesthetic principle, but here it tends to obscure some affecting little songs.
  3. Todd Snider's compressed story-songs are so vivid and knowing that they seem completely plausible, even the one on his new album voiced by a piece of discarded junk mail that dreams of being a tree again.
  4. 80
    Like Robert Earl Keen, he has a way with a punch line and the frat-boy fans to prove it--they're gonna love 'America's Favorite Pastime,' which recounts the 1970 no-hitter Dock Ellis pitched on LSD. The rest of us will admire 'Bring 'Em Home,' a spirited call to get our troops the hell out of harm's way.
  5. Excitement Plan--like its author--is full of hope, realism, humor and just enough crazy to weather the storm.
  6. Playing to Snider’s considerable strengths at playful familiarity, Was keeps the flourishes to a minimum, pulling the vocals to the fore and dropping the rest back in the mix. Though the sidemen are illustrious (Jim Keltner and Greg Leisz for God’s sake) they aren’t here to show off, but rather to advance the man at the centre. It all works beautifully.
  7. It's unrelentingly grim, relieved only by Snider's dark humor.

See all 9 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. WilliamL
    Sep 1, 2009
    10
    A typical Snider album, well written, hitting all emotions and making it all rhyme. Well done Mr. Snider.
  2. MSimpson
    Aug 13, 2009
    9
    Reminds me of Howe Gelb. Great stories and music that is enjoyable to chill to. Not usually a country fan but I recognize good songwriting Reminds me of Howe Gelb. Great stories and music that is enjoyable to chill to. Not usually a country fan but I recognize good songwriting when I hear it and this transcends genre boundaries. Expand
  3. TomT
    Jun 20, 2009
    8
    Good one.