A couple of weeks before Christmas I was looking for a hot album to buy to my best friend for Christmas. I knew that the new Craig David album had been released a few weeks before that, and I had heard good things about it so I decided to buy the album for her. I really liked his debut album, and after a bit of thinking I decided to keep the album for myself instead.

Who Is This Guy That Claims To Be Slicker Than Your Average?
Craig David, born in Southampton in the UK in 1982 is the youngest British male to ever have a #1 hit with his song Fill Me In, released when Craig was 18. He had success before this as well, at 14 he wrote a song that became #3 in the UK, I’m Ready, performed by Damage and at 17 he collaborated with Artful Dodger, and made the hit Rewind. After the hit of Fill Me In, Craig released his debut album, Born To Do It. He achieved huge success with the album in all of Europe, and they decided that he was going to be released in the States as well. His album sold well in the States as well, and he had a few hits as well, in addition to the first single, he had hits with 7 Days and Walking Away. In September 2002 he released the first single from his sophomore album, What’s Your Flava?, and a couple of weeks later he released the album Slicker Than Your Average.

A Closer Look At Slicker Than Your Average

The title track, Slicker than Your Average has a funky hip-hop beat to it, and Craig shows that he’s more urban than he has ever been. What doesn’t work is the weak vocal. Craig has a nice voice, but it doesn’t fit to this song, and it ends up sounding like a hip-hop version of I’m A Slave 4 u, and leaving Craig sounding more monotonous than we’ve heard him before.

What’s Your Flava?, the first single off the album, isn’t really representative for what you can hear on the rest of the album. I think it’s quite strange that he would choose the weakest song on the album to be the lead single. It does have a nice beat, but the rest of the song is not good. It seems that everything is totally out of place, especially the poor chorus. Craig is singing in falsetto on it, and it sounds truly wicked. Not a good choice, Craig.

Fast Cars and Eenie Meenie are the two songs with the most underground feel to them. The former sounds pretty nice. Even though the lyrics are gibberish, the song flows smoothly with a fairly strong chorus and a refreshing bass beat. I am sure that the latter one is great for clubs, but it doesn’t quite fit on the album. It’s denser than the rest of the album, and even though it is a tolerable song, it wouldn’t hurt the album if this song was excluded.

Hidden Agenda and 2 Steps Back are songs that virtually could have been on his debut album. Hidden Agenda, the second single off of the album and it’s a duplicate of Booty Man from Born to do it. Does it really matter? Nope. It’s one of the better songs on the album, the percussion is nice, lyrics and the vocal are also decent. 2 Steps Back is really nice. The music is 2-step, and it sounds wonderful, the same goes for vocals.

My two favorite songs on the album are You Don’t Miss Your Water (‘Til the Well Runs Dry) and Rise & Fall. You Don’t Miss Your Water is a beautiful (and alas the only) ballad. Craig is backed up by a piano, and it all sounds pretty damn fine. Lyrically it’s also the strongest song on the album, about not knowing what you’ve got till it’s gone.

If you ever get the feeling
You wanna play around start cheating
Remember
You don't miss your water 'til the well runs dry

Rise & Fall is a “cover” of the Sting song Shape Of My Heart, and it also features Sting singing on the chorus. It’s another strong song lyrically, and its autobiographical content makes this one of the more personal tracks on the album. The best part of the song is that Sting helps give this song the mellow feeling that is what made the original great. The guitar also helps make this song better, along with Craig’s strong vocal.

Cause with the money came a different status
That's when things changed
Now I'm too concerned with all the things I own
Blinded by all the pretty girls I see
I'm beginning to lose my integrity

The second weakest track on the album is Personal. Maybe it’s just me, but I really can’t stand “try-to-sound-sensual-and-making-all-the-girls-hot” songs. This song sounds like some of the worst stuff on any of the Usher or Joe albums. Craig doesn’t succeed in making it sound sensual at all, and it ends up being a song overstuffed with gooey stuff.

Track Listing
01. Slicker Than Your Average (***)
02. What’s Your Flava? (**)
03. Fast Cars (***½)
04. Hidden Agenda (****)
05. Eenie Meenie (***)
06. You Don’t Miss Your Water (‘Til The Well Runs Dry) (****½)
07. Rise And Fall feat. Sting (****½)
08. Personal (**)
09. Hands Up In The Air (***½)
10. 2 Steps Back (****)
11. Spanish (***½)
12. What’s Changed (***)
13. World Filled With Love (****)

Craig David.. Slicker Than Your Average Or Just Average?
Well, this album wasn’t quite what I had expected from Craig David. I did like his debut album, and I was expecting some growth and a more mature Craig David on this album. Instead I ended up getting an album filled with songs that all sound similar to the songs on Born To Do It. Craig David has matured a little bit, but that doesn’t show in his music. Instead of the sweet and innocent lyrics on the debut, he has darker themes on this album; stardom and heartbreak. And that’s the only thing that is different from the first album. But still, I have to give him respect for still having a sound that is original. Too bad that the originality was mostly on the debut album, and this is mostly a reproduction of that.

Should I Give It A Try Or Take 2 Steps Back?
If you still haven’t bought his first album, I think you should listen to that one first. He is a lot more inventive and creative on that album, and if you really like that album, you should give this album a try as well. If you are new to Craig David; Slicker Than Your Average isn’t the best place to discover Craig David for the first time, and you shouldn’t buy it unless you liked his first album.

3 ½ stars

Thanks for reading!
~Kent


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out