Jesse Snyder - one

Jesse Snyder

One 
self-released; 2014

3.3 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Some stories bear repeating. I think Jesse Snyder has one. Jesse Snyder was born in Port Au Prince Haiti during the Haitian Revolution. He wouldn’t be there too long since his family moved too Yu Xi, China. He lived there till his family moved once again to Jerusalem, Israel. It was here that he initially became interested in music. He somehow ending up at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix Arizona but wasn’t quite done yet. He now lives in Nashville Tennessee making records and he isn’t even thirty years old yet. Suffice it to say Snyder is cultured and I would say most likely affected the kind of music he makes. On his six song EP One the songs are almost as diverse as the places he has lived. Snyder plays rock, country, jazz and pop on this EP and somewhat gets away with it because of the well-written song.

One feels like an incredibly polished EP. It has the gloss that you expect from a release that came out from Nashville. The songs are radio ready and quite a bit of the have the commercial viability the airwaves seek. As mentioned Snyder attempts a number of different styles. Some I thought worked much better than others which we will talk about now.

The first track is a certified pop song entitled “Easy Street”. It’s basically a burst of sunshine pop that is unapologetically catchy. It’s easy to criticize the song for trying a bit too hard to be catchy and gets a bit cheesy. “Easy Street” was a bit much but the second track “Do better” was borderline irresistible. The combination of banjo and a chorus that sounds like a bit of John Denver and Kenny Rogers did me in.

Snyder attempts to gets more “hardcore” with “Bed Of Fire” while “Leave Me Alone” incorporates blues rock. Snyder goes Jimmy Buffet style on “Where I Am” which was about as catchy as “Do Better” He closes with “One” which is about as grandiose as you can get. It sounds like something you might hear on Sunday morning during worship.

Snyder is a good songwriter but I think he might want to try and nestle in on one style at some point. It’s going to be hard to establish a following with so many disparate styles.

I was listening to this album on Spotify and the last track bled into a song of his called “Start It Up”. The song was a smooth 70’s inspired disco tune that was in my opinion pretty fantastic.

Food for thought. Maybe on Snyder's next album we can get ten songs of 70’s fuelled funk.

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