Time now for David’s Craig David album review; what will he think of the British R&B legend’s new long player?
Is it a hit? Is it a miss? His words here :
I’ve always been a fan of Craig David (asides from his catastrophically bad covers album) and 2016 saw a triumphant return to the top of the charts a whopping 16 years after the last time he did it.
Craig continues where his last album left off with ‘The Time Is Now’.
On paper, he worked with some top notch writers and producers on this project, which in theory should mean this is a spectacular album. However it falls quite flat for me. It feels dated and like there’s been a bit too much production trickery applied to some tunes.
I always felt like Craig’s voice was suited to some of the slinkier tunes in his back catalogue over the more club inspired tunes and this album proves that.
Most songs sit in the same mid-tempo ’80s pop/garage inspired category and have little dynamic to them. There are not enough more intimate moments.
One of the stand out tracks for me, however, is ‘Brand New’, which is subtle and a great listen. Including a few more of these style of tracks might have made a difference to the LP.
The collaboration with Bastille is also successful, as ‘I Know You’ feels fresh and relevant. It was a great choice as a pre-release track to get people into the new material – it’s just a shame we didn’t get more.
Songs I could have done without include ‘For The Gram’ and ‘Focus’.
And if you thought it was worth the extra money for the bonus tracks, think again. Sometimes bonus tracks are a good thing, but all of these should have remained on the shelf.
All of them let Craig down and since we’ve been treated to some stellar album songs in the past, the bar is set high.
After such a successful predecessor in ‘Finding My Intuition’, ‘The Time Is Now’ is pretty ordinary.
It made it to number two in the charts in the UK the week after release (great news for Craig) but it’s one of the early lemons of 2018 for me.
It’s disappointing, but hopefully he will find his groove again before the public move on to something more interesting.
VERDICT : 2/5.
MUST LISTEN : I Know You, Brand New.
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