Signed Sealed Delivered (album)

Signed Sealed Delivered
Studio album by Craig David
Released	29 March 2010 (2010-03-29)[1]
Recorded	2008—2010
Genre	R&B, soul, funk
Label	Universal
Producer	Jerry Abbott, Grant Black
Craig David chronology
Trust Me (2007) Signed Sealed Delivered (2010) Following My Intuition (2015)
Singles from Signed Sealed Delivered
"One More Lie (Standing in the Shadows)" Released: 22 March 2010 "All Alone Tonight (Stop, Look, Listen)" Released: 31 May 2010

Signed Sealed Delivered is Craig David's fifth studio album and is his first album for Universal Records. It was released on 29 March 2010 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number 13. The album consists primarily of covers. Two of the album's tracks sample hits from the Motown era and give them a modern twist, as demonstrated with the first single from the album, "One More Lie (Standing in the Shadows)", whose chorus samples The Four Tops' 1967 Motown classic "Standing in the Shadows of Love".^[2] The second is "All Alone Tonight (Stop, Look, Listen)" which samples Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye's version of "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)". The only original song is the album's last track, "This Could Be Love".

Background and composition

Craig David's first album with his new label, Universal, is a collection of Motown covers and songs with Motown samples, and is David's first album in three years. He covers Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye amongst others, and gives these classic songs a modern twist. Signed Sealed Delivered includes the single "One More Lie (Standing in the Shadows)", an original song that samples The Four Tops' hit "Standing in the Shadows of Love" in its chorus.^[3]

Track listing

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
The Guardian	[4]
The Independent	(unfavorable)[5]
The Times	[6]
The Observer	(unfavorable)[7]
Virgin Media	[8]
Sputnikmusic	[9]
AllMusic	[10]

The album received mixed to negative reviews from music critics. One of the few positive reviews came from The Guardian critic Carolinne Sullivan, who said that "Craig David's intention, on this Motown-dominated covers album, was to "sing the songs exactly as the original artists had", which he does, reproducing every falsetto and hiccup. The question, though, is why this still-agreeable soul star would want to make a karaoke record. It's a rum way to reignite a career – he needs to recover his mojo as an irresistibly slick R&B songwriter if he plans to return to the top of the charts". In a hand of negative reviews, Davey Boy from Sputnikmusic considered the album "very poor" and said that "it's a desperate karaoke LP which may sign, seal & deliver the end of a career".

Charts

References