Confidence In You is the second release by Daniel Austin and the debut release for the newly founded Soulspace Records label.
Daniel has written and produced all songs here and he also plays keys, acoustic guitar and did the drum programming. But this isn't just a one-man show since he also included some additional musicans like Juana Randall on background vocals, Marvyn Banks on bass or Henry Alexander on alto saxophone.
The first track, Let Me In, is a fine modern piece of midtempo soul with Matt Franko on trombone.
UnderMined works best for me in the Jellybean Instrumental, not because Daniel's vocals would miss the point on this song, it's just a little too pop-influenced with a rather unnecessary electric guitar, whereas the instrumental version comes along as a smooth jazz-influenced groove. On the other hand one can say that this is just a proof of Daniel's musical diversity.
This variety makes it a little bit hard to pigeonhole Confidence in You, but then that's what makes this release interesting and further enhance the listening pleasure.
There's the house beat of Don't Wait 4 Love that comes with a short electric guitar solo which works better in this context for my ears than on the aforementioned UnderMined.
Fire And Ice delivers a funky midtempo groove with an appealing saxophone solo by Henry Alexander, whilst Something About You is another fine slightly house-influenced uptempo soul song. Daniel also brings us some very satisfying downtempo tunes like Is This For Real, Care For Each Other or the dreamy and relaxed Islands. Songs like Islands or Fire And Ice reminds me a little of Jon Lucien at the time of his Mercury releases like Listen Love or Mother Nature's Son, certainly not the worst impression a "new" musican can make.
On the whole Confidence In You is a fine debut release for Soulspace Records and keeps you in keen anticipation of future releases.