The fact that an artist switching styles with almost every single seems unusual shows just how important genre-consistent brands are to the music business. With his latest release, I Can't Read You, Daniel Bedingfield is developing an unexpected (almost Beatles-like) pop brand which is actually based on genre variety rather than consistency. Bedingfield has switched from Garage-meister to balladeer to indie shouter in the space of just four singles.
However a versatile song-writer does not necessarily a good song make, and once the initial novelty of the style-switch toguitar/indie fades, what is left is a single that shines but doesn't sparkle. This is largely due to the loud chorus, which feels like a bit of a space filler when compared to the lighter but excellent verse. The underlying cause is the same song-writing inexperience that marred If You're Not The One, leading in this latest single to an unevenness in quality.
In spite of all this I Can't Read You is still going to be a Top 10 hit - the Bedingfield brand and the cracking verse ensure that. But it does raise the question of whether Daniel's sometimes-brilliant writing will ever grow into something more sustained and consistent - a question whose answer will have to wait until the release of a second album.
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