Compositionally, many of the tracks on ‘Black Happy’ share common ground with what you might loosely call ‘grunge’ – although I’m thinking more along the lines of Alice in Chains’ ‘Jar of Flies’ than Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ or even ‘Unplugged in New York’. Drawing on elements of blues and folk, Ochs keeps it simple, acoustic guitar and vocals alone providing the bulk of the sound on ‘Black Happy’. There’s a rough-hewn quality to the gentle, almost delicate nature of the songs, which are played with real heart. It’s this, rather than any sonic force, that renders the material so powerful.
Ochs’ voice, like his guitar-playing, is warm and textured, with an oak-soaked bluesy timbre, and it really comes to the fore on closer ‘Mouth’, a wild piece of blues harmonica work. The acapella harmonies of ‘Faces in the Crowd’ owe more to traditional folk than anything more contemporary, and further connects Ochs with the rich loam of the earth.
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‘Phantom Pain’ finds Ochs laying his soul bare, and the simplicity of the acoustic arrangement only adds to the directness and the sincere energy of the song, and when he sings ‘I’m ok / for today’ on ‘Lead-Out’, you really feel it’s for real, and that he’s seen his shares of ups and downs. It’s affecting in its humanity, and it’s this that renders not just the song, but the album as a whole, relatable.
Conny Ochs Online
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