Chris Von Sneidern

California Redemption Value

(Mastromania)

Record Review by Amber Henson

Chris Von Sneidern, or CVS as he calls himself, has a new album out entitled California Redemption Value, or CRV, for short.  This is his twelfth self-produced album.  He has been making albums since 1993, so he’s obviously quite a busy man.  This particular CD was written during a temporary move to Seattle, from Von Sneidern’s obviously beloved San Francisco.  CVS will tell you all this in a tiny, four page CD cover manifesto, an interesting concept that tells the listener exactly how the album was made, what his mindset was, and how he felt about it.  But it kind of takes away from the mystique of the album; when you’re listening to the songs, you’re thinking of him, as opposed to how you relate the songs yourself.

The manifesto also lets you know how he feels about this music.  And the answer is: not good.  I can only assume that by calling the songs on this album “catchy-crap tunes” he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in them, and you can definitely feel that while listening to the songs.  None of them particularly have any soul, except for one entitled “San Francisco” that’s 44 seconds in the middle of the album.  Most of them have throwaway lyrics, like “I stumbled on a melody, it turned into a symphony.”  It’s reminiscent of a feel-good movie soundtrack from the late ‘70s or early ‘80s.  Still, though, the songs are uplifting.

The weirdest thing is that CVS sounds almost exactly like Weird Al Yankovic.  Like, exactly like.  It’s so strange.  I don’t know if Weird Al would be a singer if he didn’t have the whole humor thing going for him, but CVS has more than his voice to go on: he’s got big backing tracks.  This is an album that will hold its own when you turn the volume up.