The Craig David story has already been told and often repeated. Aged 18, David the Southampton born and bred teenager became one of the most talked about UK popular phenomena in a musical generation. In case anyone has forgotten, David became the youngest ever British male to achieve a number one hit with Fill Me In in March 2000.

The new album Slicker Than Your Average witnesses David stepping up his game throughout, singing in different styles and incredibly managing to sound fresh and unique on every track. In the way that Born To Do It had a definite ear for the pop charts. The title track contains a bluesy-influenced heavy bass R&B sound with an even grittier urban edge. David admits: Slicker Than Your Average “Represents all those things that I had to get off of my chest. I just had to let people know what Craig David was all about.”

The first single What’s Your Flava? also reveals a logical progression of the Craig David sound, in as much as it’s much more bass-driven and unafraid to get to the point lyrically. “Tell me what’s your flava? What’s your fantasy?” invites David to his female fans, on the album’s first single.

As such the single exemplifies the bigger sound that informs the whole album which was produced by Trevor Henry and Anthony Marshall of UK re-mix outfit – The Ignorants – who contribute five of the the album’s tracks.

Another song Hidden Agenda, sees a softer side of David as he fully utilises the Spanish Guitar, in a song expertly executed with the aid of former Artful Dodger and long-time Craig David collaborator and friend Mark Hill. “Being able to work with different producers represented a personal growth for me as well,” explains David. “ The whole album needed to show that I could do more than a Born To Do It Part II.”

Perhaps the most surprising fact that this album offers is that there are no collaborations with other big name artists, even though David says that he was inundated with high profile offers. “Collaborations need to be special,” David admits, “Which is why the only other artist on the album is Gordon Sumner, better known to the world as Sting.”

The inclusion of former Police front man Sting on Rise & Fall offers perhaps Slicker’s biggest surprise. Using the haunting melody of Sting’s 1993 penned Shape Of My Heart as its core sample, Rise & Fall sees Sting, educate relative ‘newcomer’ David on the perils and pitfalls of stardom and celebrity. “It was one of the most surreal moments of my life. I couldn’t believe that I was on one side of the mixing desk and Sting was on the other and we were discussing how to interpret the song,” David remembers excitedly.

Written originally in the third person in order to give the track more humanity David reversed the writing process in order to make himself the focus of the song’s lyrics. “Sting comes in on the track as my peer,” recollects David, “He’s actually telling me, Watch it, I’ve had success and I can see what it can do. Remember who you are.” Sound advice indeed.

With a unprecedented look at Craig David’s life by social commentator Melvyn Bragg’s South Bank Show due to be aired in the UK in November 2002, the mainstream have fully recognised that such a talent is impossible to overlook.