Peace, Love

TODD SNIDERPEACE, LOVE AND ANARCHY

Todd Snider, a tall, handsome, talented, funny and insightful songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee, is clearly a lot of things, photogenic is not one of them. His music, too, has often suffered a similar, illusory fate. Being plagued by tawdry album artwork for his entire career (up until this point) has been the least of Snider’s worries, as his always stellar songs have been handled - until the release of East Nashville Skyline - too often with gut-wrenchingly unsuitable production. Finally, after years of being written off as a “Bob and Tom” -friendly songwriter with Nashville machine production and promotion, Snider began showing an immense amount of real promise with the release of his 1998 album, Viva Satellite. Snider’s artistic progression peaked with the release of last year’s too-good-to-be-true sixth studio album, The Devil You Know, and now, after 13 years and seven studio albums, Snider offers up his first rarities compilation, Peace, Love and Anarchy.

As far as inevitable rarities collections go, Peace, Love and Anarchy stands well above the norm. While most collections of this sort lack any sort of cohesion whatsoever, Snider’s album - a collection of rarities, B-sides and demos - plays through like a interconnected, planned out studio album. More or less a love letter to Snider’s lesser-known but very real version of Nashville’s interloping music scene, Peace, Love and Anarchy offers listeners a mix of six often word-heavy solo acoustic tracks, one brief spoken piece and six fleshed out band songs. For the most part all 14 tracks have similar barebones production, which is, as any Snider fan would tell you, the kind of production Snider should’ve had all along.

Opening with “Nashville,” one of the many standout tracks from the aforementioned East Nashville Skyline album, Snider trips through the song, stoned and spirited, in a way only he can. Next is “Feel Like I’m Falling In Love,” a song Snider wrote with fellow troubadour Jack Ingram. The song sounds like a classic, just sitting there waiting for someone with a name like Eagle Eye Cherry to scoop it up and turn it into a million-selling hit. If you’ve never been to Nashville, listen to this song closely as it is the perfect example of what thousands of young songwriters in said city spend their days aiming for: a lean, catchy, clever blueprint just waiting to be sold to someone like Tim McGraw.

“Barbie Doll,” a novelty song written again with Ingram, recalls Snider’s all-too-recent days as somewhat of a novelty songwriter (i.e. “Beer Run”). The song is clever and fun, but, frankly, easily one of the least-inspired Snider songs since “T.V. Guide.” Getting the album back on track is “Old Friend,” an instantly hummable track with sing-a-long vocals that, as far as I can tell, was written for someone else. Like many of the songs on Peace, Love and Anarchy, “Old Friend” - not to mention the next song, “Comeover Blues” - screams “radio hit” at the top of it’s lungs.

The real payoff on Peace, Love and Anarchy comes by way of the album’s three final songs, “East Nashville Skyline,” “From a Rooftop” and “Cheatham Street Warehouse.” All three songs feature full-yet-lean arrangements and plenty of Nashville-isms, including lines like “We used to listen and where did it go? / It went off of the air so that more Sheryl Crow could come on,” and the catchy “East Nashville Skyline / Crossing over to a state of mind / Leaving all my troubles way behind.” And, if for no other reason, pick up Peace, Love and Anarchy for the rocking closer, “Cheatham Street Warehouse,” which sees Snider in full Sticky Fingers mode, a place he visited recently on the unforgettable title track from The Devil You Know.

Essential as it is for Snider fans, Peace, Love and Anarchy is still a far cry away from Snider’s last two classic-level albums, but otherwise, it’s about as good - if not better than - the good majority of his other studio releases. One missing element to this release is the inclusion of Snider-penned liner notes. On past releases Snider has written about each song, a feature you’d think essential on a compilation album. Though it might not quite be the new Snider classic fans were hoping for, Peace, Love and Anarchy will no doubt quench the palate of any fan of good ‘ol fashion singer/songwriter Americana music.  6.5/10

Written by G. William Locke