It's All About the Stragglers | |
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Studio album by | |
Released | 20 November 2000 |
Recorded | 1998–2000 |
Genre | |
Length | 51:20 |
Label | |
Producer |
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Singles from It's All About the Stragglers | |
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
Entertainment Weekly | B [4] |
The Province | [6] |
Rolling Stone | [7] |
The Sun-Herald | 4/10 [8] |
It's All About the Stragglers is the sole studio album by the English garage duo Artful Dodger. [9] It was released on 20 November 2000 by London Records. The album contains eight different vocalists, including Craig David. [10]
The album was recorded on a small budget in the empty production studios near Fareham of the Ocean Radio Group, then owned by Capital Radio. One of those stations was Power FM where the band also hosted a weekend dance show and headlined the 2000 day festival Power in the Park. [11]
The A.V. Club wrote: "Artful Dodger has always represented the lighter side of two-step, but without other artists' tracks to counter its airy levity, It's All About The Stragglers is a middling effort that makes for a less-than-thrilling introduction to an otherwise thrilling genre." [12] Exclaim! thought that "Craig David effortlessly commands the pulsing groove of 'Whatcha Gonna Do'." [13] Billboard called It's All About the Stragglers an "R&B-conscious, club-rooted, classically arranged album." [14] The Chicago Tribune opined that "chances are that teens will be befuddled by the studio geekery and dance experts will scoff at its conscious fluffiness, but tunes like 'Think about Me' are an apt reminder that not all contemporary pop has to be a guilty pleasure to be fun." [15]
Weekly charts
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Artful Dodger was originally a UK garage duo featuring songwriters and producers Mark Hill and Pete Devereux. They achieved notoriety in the 1990s and early 2000s, releasing seven consecutive singles all of which charted in the United Kingdom Top 20. During this period, the then-unknown Craig David was featured on the track "Re-Rewind". The single launched David's career, landing at #2 in the UK singles chart. Hill and Devereux won numerous accolades, including the 2000 UK Producers of the Year and Ivor Novello recognition for their songwriting.
Romina Johnson is a London-based R&B, soul and garage singer. She is perhaps best known in the UK for providing the lead vocals to the Artful Dodger song "Movin' Too Fast", a number 2 hit in early 2000.
Craig Ashley David is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame in 1999, featuring on the single "Re-Rewind" by Artful Dodger. David's debut studio album, Born to Do It, was released in 2000, after which he has released a further five studio albums and worked with a variety of artists such as Sting, Tinchy Stryder, Big Narstie, Kano and Jay Sean. David has 20 UK top 40 singles, and seven UK top 40 albums, selling over 15 million records worldwide as a solo artist.
Born to Do It is the debut studio album by English singer Craig David, released in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2000 by Wildstar Records and in the United States later in 2001 by Atlantic Records. Following exposure from his work with British group Damage, David began performing vocals for garage duo Artful Dodger. During this time, Wildstar Records became aware of David, offering him a development deal before offering an album contract. The recording for the album began in 1999 before David had acquired a record contract, the recording lasted until 2000 and was composed by David himself and Mark Hill.
"TwentyFourSeven" is a song by UK garage duo Artful Dodger. The first version of the song is included on their debut studio album It's All About the Stragglers (2000), and features a singer named Nicole. The single version features All Saints member Melanie Blatt and was released on 3 September 2001, peaking at number six on the UK Singles Chart. Since it was recorded just before the split of All Saints, it was decided to include this song on the group's All Hits album as well.
Mark Leslie Hill is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He rose to fame as one half of the Artful Dodger and co-writer and producer of Craig David's multi-platinum debut studio album, Born to Do It. Since he began releasing music in 1997, Hill has achieved four Ivor Novello Awards, a number one album, two number one singles and over 10 million records sales worldwide.
"Fill Me In" is the debut solo single of British singer Craig David. It was released on 3 April 2000 as the lead single from his debut studio album, Born to Do It (2000). The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 9 April 2000. "Fill Me In" was then released in the United States on 22 May 2001 and peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. According to the Official Charts Company, it was the 10th-best-selling single of 2000 in the UK, having sold 573,000 copies.
2-step garage, or simply 2-step, is a genre of electronic music and a subgenre of UK garage. One of the primary characteristics of the 2-step sound – the term being coined to describe "a general rubric for all kinds of jittery, irregular rhythms that don't conform to garage's traditional four-on-the-floor pulse" – is that the rhythm lacks the kick drum pattern found in many other styles of electronic music with a regular four-on-the-floor beat.
The Wideboys are an English electronic music duo known for club remixes and for their own song "Sambuca", featuring Dennis G on vocals, which reached number 15 in the UK in October 2001. Another top 40 single, "Daddy-O" featuring Shaznay Lewis, reached No. 32 in 2008.
"Rendezvous" is as song by British singer Craig David. It was released in 19 March 2001 as the fourth and final single from his debut studio album, Born to Do It, and became his fifth top ten hit from the album, following "Rewind", "Fill Me In", "7 Days" and "Walking Away".
"Hidden Agenda" is a song by English singer Craig David. It was written by David and producer Mark Hill for his second studio album, Slicker Than Your Average (2002). The song was released on 6 January 2003 as the album's second single and became his eighth top-10 hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 10 and spending six weeks inside the UK top 75. After the change in sound between his debut album Born to Do It and "What's Your Flava?", the lead single from Slicker Than Your Average, "Hidden Agenda" returned David to the sound for which he was known for in his worldwide hits such as "7 Days" and "Walking Away" and re-united him with Artful Dodger record producer Mark Hill.
"Movin' Too Fast" is a song by UK garage duo Artful Dodger, released on 26 July 1999. The song features Romina Johnson and was included on the duo's debut studio album, It's All About the Stragglers (2000). "Movin' Too Fast" was originally recorded by Johnson as a solo artist and appears on her 1998 debut album, Simply Passion, produced by Rolando Bacci Hardage. The Artful Dodger remix version of the track was first distributed as a white label vinyl release. After it was picked up by DJs, it was licensed to Locked On for mainstream distribution.
"Re-Rewind " is a song by English garage duo Artful Dodger, featuring Craig David on vocals. Released in the United Kingdom on 29 November 1999, the song reached number two, giving both Artful Dodger and David their first chart hit. In his dean's list for the annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice named "Re-Rewind" the fifth-best single of the year.
Susan Brice, better known by her stage name Coco Star, is an English singer and songwriter, who was signed to Universal Music and EMI. Brice has collaborated with artists such as Craig David, Artful Dodger and Fragma for the number 1 hit, "Toca's Miracle".
"Woman Trouble" is a song by Artful Dodger and Robbie Craig featuring British singer Craig David. It reached number six on the UK Singles Chart and peaked within the top 50 in Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand. In 2015, it earned a silver certification for selling over 200,000 copies in the UK. Capital Xtra included the song in their list of "The Best Old-School Garage Anthems of All Time".
"Please Don't Turn Me On" is a song by UK garage duo Artful Dodger, released on 13 November 2000 as the fifth single from the duo's debut studio album, It's All About the Stragglers (2000). The song peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and spent 10 weeks on the chart. It also reached the top 50 in Australia and Ireland, as well as number 90 in Switzerland.
Truce were an all-female British R&B trio in the 1990s, consisting of lead singer Dianne Joseph, Janine Linton and Michelle Escoffery. Their biggest hit was "Eyes Don't Lie" which reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart in 1998. They released their first album, Nothin' But the Truce in 1995 and had disbanded by 1998.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by jungle, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop and R&B. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
"Gabriel" is a song by Roy Davis Jr. and Peven Everett.