Benjamin Schoos – Doubt In My Heart

Freaksville

For the follow up to 2018’s compilation of instrumental tracks Quand La Nuit Tombe Sur l’Orchestre, Benjamin Schoos has divested himself of the ’70s theme tune rollneck and opened his shirt buttons to embrace his inner yacht God.

This album is smooth; so smooth it is like rubbing a baby’s bottom with another baby’s bottom. Here, for half an hour, we can feel seduced by smooth soul sounds and gentle infectious rhythms. Benjamin has invited some guest vocalists to croon or emote over his sunny compositions, wrapping you up in cotton wool and ushering you along sun-kissed boulevards.

Opener “Traces Of Our Thoughts” has Marker Starling on vocal duties and sets the scene with a gentle synthetic beat-driven piano ballad. The sighing Air Supply backing vocals and lachrymose violin drift around his candyfloss croon. “Shoes”, with Nicholas Krgovich, is yachtier and deeper, with a little more sensuality. His charming visions and soulful delivery touch a little on Barry White territory, while Drew Smith‘s “Baby I’m In Love” borrows more from street corner doo-wop, the close harmony vocals a real delight, but mixing it up with some digital effects and melty female backing. It is full-on yacht o’clock when Dent May arrives for “All Night Every Night”. This is full-tilt romance, with Dent singing as though through a smile. The lyrics “Will you be my sweetheart for always” sum up the sentiments and mood of the album, really.

The vocals on the lighter-waving majesty of Alex Cravaghan‘s “Melody Souvenir” are slightly more keening and give way to another smooth outing from Marker Starling. Freq regular Robert Sotelo makes an appearance on “Power To Amaze”, with more of a romantic outlook than usual, his voice really suiting the synth backing Benjamin has produced for him. Marker Starling is once again swathed in ba-da-bas on “Catching In Passing” and it is down to final act Future Children to change the vibe just a little. There is more distance in “I’m Disappearing”, the vocals ethereal in their dissipating effects. In fact, there is a touch of Mark Linkous in the delivery, which has its own poignancy and sees the album out in a bitter-sweet way.

Doubt In My Heart is like a stroll by the side of a Californian beach or watching the mast flags flap in a south of France marina. The sipping of dry champagne, the company of a sweet loved one and the gentle murmur of desire in your ear are all you need to complete the scene.

-Mr Olivetti-