Craig David will release his second album, Slicker Than Your Average, on November 19th. David began recording the album a year ago in London and New York with producer Mark Hill and guitarist Fraser T. Smith, who played several acoustic shows with David last fall.

The album, which features a duet with Sting, will be the R&B phenom's first since 2001's Born to Do It (produced by Hill), which registered platinum sales in the U.S. after several months of huge international sales.

"I want to have it, on the one hand, a little bit harder and, on the other hand, something that people haven't really touched on yet," David told Rolling Stone last year. "We're going to play around with some string quartets and stuff like that and also I want to go somewhere with the Latin thing, but not where everyone else has gone. I want it hard on the beat side. I want the music to really be uplifting."

ANDREW DANSBY
(September 13, 2002)