Craig David - Born CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

Born to Do It from the stuff currently clogging the radio is the way it strikes a balance between traditional pop and R&B, using modern production flash as the bridge. David's music is crammed to overflowing with acoustic guitar and prominently placed strings, layered just so over the insistent thump of beats and bass, even in the ballads. The result has more pop savvy than most contemporary American urban fare but is more authentically urban than the blue-eyed soul of MTV-friendly boy bands. Tracks like "7 Days," "Fill Me In" (the first U.S. single) and "Can't Be Messing 'Round" have steel-plated hooks that burrow into your head and won't let go, while David ad-libs such hip-hop cliches as "Money ain't a thing" and "[I'm] getting' jiggy just for fun." Still, the slick Born to Do It is dragged down by an overabundance of ballads ranging from the kind of sappy fare that lovesick teenagers play for one another late at night over the phone ("Rendezvous," "Key to My Heart") to self-consciously risque fare like "Booty Man."

David has a creamy voice that's given texture by a palpable libidinous yearning; it's the sound of a horny boy becoming a smooth player. His vocals are layered and treated with effects on almost all the tracks, and he has the ability to flutter his voice atop stuttering beats or to race ahead of those same beats while still keeping time. Though he's undoubtedly talented, it's only on the Artful Dodger-produced U.K. club classic "Rewind" that David really makes a lasting impression. There - with his singing chopped up and edited into riffs and hooks - David is sexy, commanding and vibrant in a way that the rest of the album only sometimes achieves.

ERNEST HARDY
(RS 874 - August 2, 2001)