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Craig David seemed to be a name destined to be left behind in early-noughties-nostalgia, but now he’s back with possibly his best album yet.
If in the six years since his last release you’ve forgotten his talent, Following My Intuition is a timely reminder that the Southampton born star is one of the best in the business.
The album doesn’t hang around in showcasing the modern, energetic style of garage-tinged R&B’s very own Lazarus with a comeback record worthy of the many plaudits it’s received, enjoying a prolonged spell at the peak of the iTunes UK album chart.
David’s new-found style is fitting with how music has changed in the last six years, ‘Ain’t Giving Up’ is a superb opener, with the following three songs flitting between EDM, garage and drum’n’bass including one of the highlights of the album, ’16’, which is a pumped up mash-up of Jack Ü’s Where Are Ü Now and his second single Fill Me In from all the way back in 2000.
The album doesn’t venture too far from David’s R&B roots with some hard-hitting ballads including Louder Than Words, which provides a mellow and meaningful underbelly to accompany the faster moving get-you-dancing tunes in the first half of the album.
If anything, David’s time out of production has proved to be this album’s biggest weakness. As admirable it is to slot himself back in with the times, you get the impression he has tried to maybe encapsulate a number of different styles in the one album, firing his genre scattergun up and down the track list.
From listening to EDM, to pop, to R&B, to drum’n’bass you’re certainly kept guessing, and maybe left a little bit dizzy by the end of it, almost like an album that perfectly personifies the use of a shuffle button.
Equally, it oozes an energy which is something to be built on in David’s next release as he shakes the Bo’ Selecta! monkey off his back and gives a timely reminder of what got him there in the first place with this smooth, enigmatic and well-produced album.
It’s good to have him back.