#tchad blake

Album Review: Todd Snider - First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder

Todd Snider pulled off a minor miracle inside First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder.

Namely, he went on a wild tangent of trip-hop and lo-fi funk - call it red-eyed soul - and while making a record unlike any in his discography, managed not to lose himself in the process. Take “The Resignation vs. The Comeback Special” for example.

It seems to end the album with a farewell, fading to a chorus of, That’s right you dumb mother fuckers, I’m steppin’ down, before fading back in from silence with, I’m makin’ a comeback.

Vintage Snider.

Produced by Tchad Blake (Los Lobos, Latin Playboys) and with Snider singing all parts and playing virtually every instrument (guitar, bass, banjo, piano) save for drums and flute, First Agnostic ... veers from funny to heartbreaking as Snider eulogies the departed Col. Bruce Hampton on “Turn Me Loose (I’ll Never Be the Same),” his Hard Working Americans bandmate Neal Casal on “Sail On, My Friend” and John Prine on “Handsome John.” The latter is unique on the LP, a stark piano ballad that’s so muted it sounds as if it’s coming from underground - vintage Blake - smack in the middle of 10 dance-ready numbers.

Taken together, the songs are comedy wrapped in tragedy; agnosticism intertwined with, well, wonder.

Snider uses “The Battle Hymn of the Album” and its Get down on the ground refrain not as an exhortation to boogie, but as an excoriation of police brutality. Meanwhile, on “Agnostic Preacher’s Lament,” Snider acts as a sort of omniscient Central Scrutinizer - minus Zappa’s voice manipulation - as he lays out what everyone wants out of life:

Succeed at everything we try/live forever and never die

Snider borrows the lyrical structure of “Statistician’s Blues” and rhymes billions with oceans on “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and recycles lyrics from “Beer Run” on “Stoner Yodel Number One.”

First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder is Snider laughing in the face of a horrible year of loss and anguish. It’s Snider finding his groove where nothing is groovy. And it’s him - as he says in the “Yodel” - Preaching to the shithouse choir.

Open your hymnal to page 420 and sing along.

Grade card: Todd Snider - First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder - B+