The Singles Jukebox

Comeback all over your doink! Will Craig re-re-rewind the clock on his popularity? Could literally go on for 7 days like this…

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Thomas Inskeep: Well of course Craig David sounds great on this: it’s basically a UK garage track from 2002, and nothing is more his forte. There’s even a throwback to his smooth ‘n’ silky debut on Artful Dodger’s “Re-Rewind” (“all over your–“), for Pete’s sake. Big Narstie drops a perfectly solid grime verse in the middle of the proceedings, but frankly this ain’t about him. 
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Megan Harrington: Empire‘s Jamal so desperately wants to be Craig David. The slick futurism of “When the Bassline Drops” is a sound that feels nestled in the early ’00s, a first taste of adulthood that promised enamel furniture and lofted sight lines. Pop music has trended bigger, more cartoonish, more colorful, and more dystopian since. A show like Empire, though it’s all those things and more, can’t lets its decorative touches — its original songs — get lost on the cutting edge. Jamal, the show’s apparent R&pop star, justifies his backwards glance with expensive live instrumentation. What he’s creating isn’t expired, it’s timeless. David is writing what he knows, he sharpened this sound and he’ll tinker with it until he tires. His perfecting touch is Big Narstie, who sounds like freshly mown grass and a 10 lb bag of mulch. Together they sound like a big budget drama — a flashy cast, talented writers, and the age old conflict of man vs. the music. 
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Scott Mildenhall: If things continue to escalate, The Redemption of Craig David could become one of the great cinematic epics of the early 21st century, but this is not the song that should feature at its climax. His previous triumphs are light years ahead of this, a song so insubstantial that it could be royalty-free ambience music for an overheated clothes shop, with only the hint of a “boink!” being halfway memorable; even Big Narstie brings little to suggest his cult popularity. Hopefully it’s all as if he were a brand new act, and this is the pre-Christmas “tastemakers”‘ single.
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Patrick St. Michel: Craig David doesn’t mess around here — an understated intro and then he dives into a breezy garage-pop number, wherein David plays the role of ushering in the weekend. Big Narstie adds some nice tension, even if ultimately ends a slightly sharp corner to a feel-good throwback. 
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Micha Cavaseno: After a chance meeting in BBC Studios thanks to Top 5 UK Comedy Team DOA Kurupt FM, two gods encounter each other. The first is Craig David, a man who actually has shit range, but just for making his first album’s singles and “Rewind” has eternal credibility. The other is Big Narstie, the former N.A.A mic-man who hasn’t had a good song in a decade but has become an icon thanks to his infinitely rewarding “Uncle Pain” YouTube series in which he serves as the Brixton Dear Abby. Because the universe does sometimes recognize when good things need to be, especially after the remarkable chemistry they showed during David KO-ing “Where Are U Now” like nobody’s business on that BBC session, these two have recorded a song together that I hope is the first of many. David is mostly nostalgic, recycling from “Rewind” and reviving the old garage sound palettes into a more tech-housey edge. But its Narst who really helps push this one past how novel it sounds, turning in the first verse in a decade that truly overflows with his humor and spark, while he even plays support “host” during David’s verses like he’s chatting over records on Axe.FM again. For anyone who’s ever thrown up gun-fingers to “Urban Hero” or knows the Sunship dub mix of “Fill Me In” is low-key much better than the original, this is just what the doctor ordered.
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Jonathan Bogart: I’m enjoying Craig David’s unobtrusive and even ephemeral reinvention as a SoundCloud artist; anything that doesn’t get picked up by DJs or the radio can be said to not count. It’s not failure if you don’t try. And if that means that the millions who would have loved it if they didn’t have to find it for themselves won’t get to hear it, oh well.
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