I’m not one of those people that are against country music, I’m quite okay with it, however few times do I declare a country album to be extraordinary, and even though Todd Snider is more alt-country than purely country I did found myself thinking The Excitement Plan, his latest album, was pretty damn extraordinary.

All his songs are stories, compressed ones obviously, but extremely vivid, extremely well narrated stories, many times about keeping hope in hard times, and the many diverse characters he writes/sings about, like one murderer without remorse,  sound extremely well over his bluesy guitar chops and rocking piano. Snider is a creative genius, and I’m not overselling him.

Seriously, buy this one, don’t download it or anything, buy it, give this guy some money so that he can get big like he should be, it’d be like giving cash to a talented writer, a talented singer, and a talented guitar player, all at the same time.

Btw, further proof that Snider is a cool cat, here’s how he described himself some time ago: “tree-huggin’, peace-lovin’, pot-smokin’, porn-watchin’, lazy-ass hippie”, that’s also how imma be describing myself from now on.

Grade: A