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Album reviews Music

SSION’s O album is the best kind of pop music

Rating: NNNN


Cody Critcheloe’s music and videos as SSION (pronounced “shun”) have served as both a commentary on and indulgence in joyous pop music. Though known more as a video director in the years since the release of 2012’s Bent, the New York City-based musician tips the balance into the latter camp with his best collection of songs to date. 

O opens with a minimal cover of Roy Orbison’s Big As I Can Dream that sets up the theme of head-in-the-clouds ambition and then proceeds to make the lyrical loftiness (“Just put your faith in me and strange as it may seem/I will build a dream for you”) a reality with spastic pop songs that hurl Critcheloe between balladry and digital hardcore, dream-pop and punk. The sounds are wild but the songwriting is tight, witty, personal and referential.  

There’s a streak of a crying-on-the-dancefloor classicism on O, especially in the Ariel Pink-assisted At Least The Sky Is Blue and Heaven Is My Thing Again. The songs are melancholy, but energy and empowerment shine through – a reminder that solid songs are so much more inspiring than the self-help proselytizing that has become a crutch for many pop stars. 

Guests include Róisín Murphy, Hole’s Patty Schemel and Royal Trux’s Jennifer Herrema, whose contributions make clear the enduring influence adventurous women musicians have had on queer culture at times when the mainstream has lacked diversity. All of his influences are effortlessly distilled into pop music that feels new, exciting and familiar – the best kind.

Top track: Heaven Is My Thing Again (feat. MNDR, Jametatone and Ian Isiah)

kevinr@nowtoronto.com | @kevinritchie

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