Forse-Harmony; Dischi Amici Records, 2020

 

So this last summer, Mrs. Amnesiac and myself painted our garage. Naturally, I wanted to listen to music during this process. We chose a lot of CDs by guys and girls strumming acoustic guitars for ballad types of forms, and these mellower types of vibes really fit into the process, along with enhancing the desired mood. Over the course of several of these painting sessions, Disaster Amnesiac was reminded how cool the simple, stripped down approach to music can be. 

This reminder primed me for Harmony, the 2020 release from Forse. The 13 tracks that make up this digital/cassette release are all written and performed by this one guy. He seems to be coming from the Jonathan Richman school of naive, self contained song writing. This is not to say that Harmony's songs are simple jacks of Richman or any other, for they are not. His singing style is sweetly naif as it invites the listener to sing along about issues such as finding employment in I'm Looking For a Job and simply being content in Alright, Sincerely. Listeners with children will find a great family singalong in Put Your Finger Everywhere (think boogers...ear wax...), and the star obsessed, within the global musical underground, will love Henry Flynt and Moe!/Salaryman. Disaster Amnesiac hopes that the latter is about Oakland based drummer/composer Moe! Staiano, that's for sure. 

Harmony's musical sparseness is astute. Forse generally keeps things pretty simple, with cleanly strummed guitar lines or simple keyboard progressions providing the musical backdrop of the songs. This simplicity makes for an inviting vibe throughout. The instrumental - provides a fine example of what Disaster Amnesiac is talking about here, as does opening track She's Afraid Of the Dark and penultimate piece Something You Have To Change. He's not afraid to use tastefully placed overdubs and multi-tracking on many of the pieces on Harmony, though, and these give the album a band-produced feel. I actually had to send Dischi Amici label head Vasco an email to clarify that Forse is indeed one person! Said simplicity makes for a fun, hassle-free listening experience. You'll surely find yourself singing along as meanwhile these riffs will be sticking to your perception like paste onto paper. 

With Harmony, Forse has crafted a very catchy, user friendly album of very enjoyable Loner Pop.  Cop it, press play, and prepare for some smiles, no matter what you may be doing or undoing.