Daniel Bedingfield

Bedingfield listens so attentively that he not only knows all of boy-pop's tricks and influences but adds his own, and so responsively that--here's the deal--he comprehends reception as well as production. Play the uptempo openers one-two-three and maybe you'll get off on which beat or timbre is Michael and which Prince, although he wouldn't break it down so crudely. But the reason to believe is a line apiece in the two slow-it-down-a-littles that follow, both of a shamelessness Michael and Prince will be lucky to equal again. "He don't want to have your children," this cute mouse-clicker warns. "And I wish you could be the one I die with," he swears. (Grade: A-)