There’s a very specific kind of song that announces itself as Important within the first thirty seconds; not because of anything it’s done yet, but because it arrives carrying a fully itemized list of influences, intentions, and moral positioning. THE CHOICE by Chris Oledude is absolutely one of those songs.
And to be clear, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means you’re not here for ambiguity. You’re here for a thesis.
Chris Oledude comes from a background that almost over-qualifies him for this kind of project. Raised in a musically dense household that treated classical, folk, funk, and protest music as equally valid languages, he grew up harmonizing with his brothers and absorbing the idea that music should probably do something, not just exist.
THE CHOICE leans hard into that lineage. You can hear the fingerprints of Pete Seeger in the song’s moral clarity, alongside flashes of Jethro Tull and Rush in its structure; less in sound, more in the sense that this is trying to be a statement piece rather than just a track.
Lyrically, it’s concerned with environmental collapse and human responsibility, which is about as subtle as it sounds. The Hudson River becomes both setting and symbol, and the song frames ecological damage not as an abstract crisis but as a direct result of individual and collective decisions. It’s earnest to the point of near discomfort, but crucially, it never feels insincere. The result wasn’t a nostalgic throwback. It was something more deliberate: a fusion of “old school” genres with modern anxieties.
You can hear that in THE CHOICE. It doesn’t sound retro, exactly, but it does feel anchored, like it belongs to a tradition where songs are expected to carry weight. The arrangement supports the message without overwhelming it, and while it occasionally edges into didactic territory, it pulls back just enough to remain listenable rather than purely instructional.
That said, this isn’t a casual listen. It asks for attention, agreement, maybe even action. Whether that works for you will depend on how much you want your music to double as a call to conscience.
But as a mission statement, it’s effective. THE CHOICE doesn’t just present an idea; it insists on it and in a musical landscape that often prefers vibes over viewpoints, there’s something almost radical about that.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
