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Music Genre: Rock
Music Label: Innerstate
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Since
his first solo album in 1993, singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Chris
von Sneidern has been a stalwart proponent of power pop, that
oft-disparaged subgenre of rock 'n' roll where gregarious melodic hooks,
enthralling solos, and pretty Anglophile harmonies reign supreme. His
touchstones include early Beatles (especially McCartney's songs) and '70s
power-pop acts such as the Raspberries. On his latest disc, The Wild
Horse, von Sneidern ups the ante by expanding his sonic palette (as
before, he plays most of the instrumentation) to include a more ornate,
orchestral approach, inspired by pop icons Roy Orbison and Petula Clark --
Clark's hit song "Downtown," an ode to urban loneliness, is
covered here in a lovingly earnest, unironic fashion. For once.
The mini-epic
"Great American Dream" is but one high point here, with its
wistful California-dreamin' harmonies (by Chicagoans Kelly Hogan and Neko
Case) dramatically thick as early morning seaside fog. In a better world
than this, the surging "Neighbor's Dog" would be a hit, with its
steely-glistening layered guitars, punchy bass, and brisk pace that makes
it feel shorter each time you listen. Alas, not all is golden: "Ooh
Mama Mama" is a contender for Worst Song of the Year with its fillet-of-soul
slide guitar licks and gimme-a-break chorus of "Ooh mama mama/Where's
your daddy tonight?" It's a slice of ersatz funky blues-rock that
makes me take back every bad thing I ever said about Don Henley and Lynyrd
Skynyrd. Fortunately, that's but one song -- the rest of Horse is
classy retro-pop melancholia par excellence.
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