Then he slowly started creating wave in the media with his release of "Born To Do It" and it's smooth, catchy single "Fill Me In". He finally caught on with his two big singles "Seven Days" and "Walking Away" but even with a ceritified Gold Album he has yet to cause a huge fire in the music world.

With "Slicker Than Your Average" he still doesn't seem like he's ready to pull it off. The problem with Craig is that he doesn't have a huge street appeal
which has helped propel the careers of similar artists like R. Kelly, musiq and D'Angelo therefore losing alot of support from the black community that has helped supported the forementioned artists. He also has this good-guy attitude that doesn't get quite nasty enough to cause very much appeal in the teeny boppers that help support basically most of the pop stars who have to have enough sexual implications to keep thier attention.

And it's as if to say that Craig doesn't realize this. He vents these frustrations in the overly-long opening title track. And also not to say that he hasn't spiced up his act. With the addition of U.K. Garage's slick production and appearances by U.K. Garage's rappers and Sting it certainly helps to show off Craig's knack for walking the line between being pop/hip-hop and being an artsy English artist like Elton John or Robbie Williams with great succession.

On songs like "You Don't Miss Your Water" and "Rise And Fall" Craig's smooth and often fluctuating pitch carry the tunes better than any other male mainstream pop artist since Elton John or R. Kelly. Thier are also very playful songs that seem to want to bring out the sexy side of Craig ("What's Your Flava?" and "Throw Your Hands Up") which are as easily catchy as they are disposable. But then Craig falls a few steps back with songs the try to give Craig unnecessary street-cred ("Slicker Than The Average"), just sound like any other R & B ballad released in the last ten years ("Personal"), sound like one of his other songs (You can't deny the similarity between "2 Steps" and "Fill Me In") or feel like they written after hearing how good movies like "Gone In 60 Seconds" have done in
the box office (The overly cheesy and cliched "Fast Cars").

Craig seems to know what he wants to do and what he wants to accomplish but also seems like something is holding him back. He has, without a doubt, one of the best voices in music and that helps get him through all the rough spots in the album. But his voice can get only help him so much before you notice some of the bad songwriting (The chorus in "Eenie Meanie" is possibly the cheesiest one since the Spice Girls' "Wannabe".) "Slicker Than Your Average" is a step in the right direction overall but certainly has its kinks to work out before he can truly breakthrough.

• The Woug Prozzak Site