Craig David is the type of man who, if we are to believe his lyrics, meets a woman on Monday, makes love with her by Wednesday, and then again on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before chilling on Sunday. But the supa playa R&B routine is really just a smokescreen. By all accounts, David is one of the most squeaky clean, hard-working pop stars out there, which ironically, makes him all the more desirable to the millions of women itching to wrap themselves around his body.
This means that tonight, when David shows up for a show at National Taiwan University gymnasium, the sexual energy of the city will be directed in one very predictable direction -- his.
David is bringing his sultry self through Taipei for one night on his world tour to promote his already multi-platinum second album Slicker Than Your Average, a title that is as boastful, though not quite as suggestive as the name of his first album, Born to do It, from two years ago.
It was his first album, released when he was 18, with tracks like Seven Days that narrated his busy week of seduction and Fill Me In that told of essentially the same except without mention of a calendar, that propelled David to international stardom like a greased rocket and established him somewhere between hip hop and R&B.
That somewhere has been the key element in his broad appeal and success, and it's at least in some part due to the simple fact that he's British. David can show up on stage with a head full of corn rows and muscle shirt without appearing menacing like Allen Iverson, or lecherous like R. Kelly. All he needs to do is whisper in his polite English way "good evening" and crowds, especially in the US, have already melted into putty in the palm of his hand.
The success of Born to do It in the US prompted David to produce Slicker Than Your Average with what many critics said was one finger in the air to read the winds from across the ocean. This led to openly voiced suspicions in British music magazines and even on the BBC that David had turned his back on his roots as a popular DJ in the UK's two-step garage scene (that's garage, pronounced gair-idge).
David devotes a lot of the lyrics on the new album to deflecting trash talking and in interviews has described his new album as a next step in his development as a musician. But isn't that how most musicians defend their sophomore efforts that fall afoul of critics?
Slicker Than Your Average is, indeed, more slickly produced, as is immediately apparent in the ultra-funky hit single What's Your Flava? The other tracks on the album, notably Spanish and Rise and Fall, also feel as though they've been pored over to sharpen each song's hook, which can become tiresome when the novelty of nodding your head to every song wears off.
To be fair, when he's not trying to beat back the playa haters in his songs, David sounds on Slicker Than Your Average less like someone trying to prove himself and more like a self-assured singer displaying his undeniable vocal talent through some generally brooding songs that speak of the dangers of stardom and success. That is to say, he's not so much celebrating the high life of bling bling and beyatches. Instead, he's moaning about how burdensome these trappings of stardom can be.
But don't feel sorry for him. His albums sell millions, he's got rugged good looks, a goatee that looks as if it were drawn on his face using a very fine marker and a voice that is, well, sexier than your average.
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