Stragglers are apparently the ones who are still there when the lights come on at the end of a club night. Good though they are the Dodger's success has been with the pop crowd, more likely to be tucked up in bed by that time of night. This is all part of the illusion of chocolate boy garage, selling underground fantasies to mainstream dreamers.
The Artful Dodger's core consists of Pete Devereux and Mark Hill but like Timbaland and more close to home Soul II Soul the duo have contracted a host of regular singers to front their creations.
Naturally it's Craig David's voice which shines out strongest of all and in part (his parts) this is a Re-retrospective of his work before he became the recognised, talented star he now deservedly is.
What's strange is how two classically trained geezers from Southampton have come to utterly dominate mainstream garage, London's best known, most loved musical concoction. Cheekily the catchline on 'R U Ready', is "Are You Ready London", playing off and to the capital's glamour from where the two are most certainly not. Then again they are called the Artful Dodger, so named because they started off making bootlegs of other people's records so at least they've never claimed to be completely Kosher.
And there's no doubt they can produce great records. Unfortunately they've already released all of them. Utter anthem 'Re-rewind', 'Movin' Too Fast', 'Woman Trouble' and the excellent 'Watcha Gonna Do' stand tall over new tracks such as 'Think About Me', 'Twentyfourseven', 'Something', 'We Should Get Together' and 'Outrageous' which are merely pleasant fillers.
However 'Watcha Gonna Do' was released so long ago many current AD fans will be new to it. No wonder they've remixed 'Woman Trouble' and 'Movin Too Fast' to fatten the album out. Only 'Please Don't Turn Me On' stands out as a potential next release and 'R U Ready' could cut it on the club scene with twisted up remix. If you only know the Artful Dodger by the odd track then this is a great album, otherwise it's a bit of a clever swizz.
