Poor Craig. Back in 2002, just as the relentless ribbing from the tabloids was starting to subside, suddenly Avid Merrion came along and hijacked his entire identity. In a twist that would have Andy Warhol drooling at the postmodernity of it all, the parody overshadowed the person and his last album – 2005’s The Story Goes... – sank without a trace.
Now he’s back, beanie hat and beard curiously absent, a song with a credible artist (Kano) under his belt and a lush production sound laminating everything in sight. It’s clear that this is his comeback bid, and he goes at it like Rocky trying to reclaim his lost crown.
In fairness, he makes a decent fist of it. The lead-off single ‘Hot Stuff’ samples the hook from David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’, which is a little like taking a bit of Mount Everest to make a fireplace. It comes off perfectly though, making it a promising opener. The basslines bubbling under the surface of ‘6 Of 1 Thing’ are truly enticing, and for a while it really seems as if he’s on the up again.
However, David is hamstrung by trying to please both critic and fan. This jumping between bases means not enough is made of the intriguing psych-calypso opening of ‘Awkward’. His attempts to show ‘lyrical maturity’ mean that ‘Officially Yours’ is the most disingenuous thing I’ve heard since my third class teacher complimented my crayon drawings.
But, even though some of the songs make you feel like you’re trapped in a cutting-edge furniture shop, his wily trick of book-ending the album with the best tracks means you don’t notice the gaps. By the time you hear the crashing wall of synths that dominates ‘This Is The Girl’ (the single he recorded with Kano), you could almost swear it was the work of The Neptunes.
So fair play to Craig for not letting it all grind him down. He still has the songs and his featherlite falsetto is as charming as ever.