todd snider - the excitement planTodd Snider has been around a long time, flying under the mainstream radar but beloved by fans who appreciate what Amazon’s editors aptly call his “signature wit and amiable pathos.” That wit and pathos are in evidence all over the singer-songwriter’s latest, the understated (and ironically titled) The Excitement Plan. If you like laconic, wry, and cleverly written journeyman songs in the Robert Earl Keen mode, you can’t go wrong with Snider.

The song — “Money, Compliments, Publicity (Song Number Ten)” — is the funniest I’ve heard this year.