Bedingfield's second album shows the continuing maturity of a singer/songwriter who is pretty well near the top of his game, if not standing on the summit already. OK, he forgot the words to an Elton John classic on a recent TV tribute show to the piano playing legend, but he can't be expected to do everything. For a singer born in New Zealand and brought up in sunny south east London - Lewisham, to be precise - Bedingfield has managed to nail down a sound that has US audiences and record company executives clamouring for everything he does. He's the king of urban-lite and can clearly cut the mustard when it comes to putting together his own sound.

The beats throughout the numerous uptempo tracks on Second First Impression have got American radio written all over them, while the production values are slick to the point of giving the Exxon Valdez a run for its money. The album has been produced and mixed by Jack Joseph Puig, the man behind mixes for the likes of No Doubt, Beck, Counting Crows and Goo Goo Dolls, and despite being heavily helmed, it doesn't sound particularly laboured.

The album's opener, Growing Up, taps a funky Justin Timberlake-esque vein, as do Don't Give'r It All and Show Me The Real You. Complicated is a fiesta-like slab of fun, but it's not all latin and urban beats; he knows how to rock too, at least on his own terms, with The Way being eerily reminiscent of Coldplay meets early U2. Ballads are a Bedingfield staple and are here in abundance. Sorry and Nothing Hurts Like Love are classy, without being overblown.