Conny Ochs – Black Happy

Best known for his collaboration with doom merchant Wino, German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs returns to a simple solo set-up with second album Black Happy. Though a seasoned performer with many years of music-making under his belt, Ochs’ preferred lyrical topics – pain, sadness, disenchantment – have a tendency to evoke overdone adolescent angst rather than the more profound weltschmerz they presumably shoot for; less like a soul laid bare and more like a teenager glowering that no one understands them.

But that’s not to write Black Happy off entirely, with a scattering of successes present amongst the glum humdrum – an unexpectedly well-turned phrase here, an impassioned delivery there. No Sleep Tonight is an example of the latter quality, with its considerable clichés transcended by a convincing vigour, while the fingerpicked calm of Stable Chaos demonstrates a rarely-used grace – a simplicity that possesses far more appeal than the overwrought emotions plied elsewhere. [Chris Buckle]