Natasha Bedingfield: Unwritten

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

"Our" Daniel's little sister finds her funky feet on debut album

Whether young Natasha is the Janet to Daniel Bedingfield's Michael - or the Marie to his Donny - the message is already fairly clear. Those parts of the world who take notice of Britain's pop exports will be making the 22-year-old a very big star by Christmas. Her debut album is a spunky dancepop affair that leans more towards the imaginatively groovy, than sounding like she's from the same Brit factory that gave us Atomic Kitten.

She has a bunch of top-league pop co-writers helping out, but in the words of the Idol judiciary, she really makes the songs her own. Especially on the opener Those Words, which pulls off the old trick of writing a song about writing a song rather neatly.

Also good is the punchy I'm a Bomb (wonder if Keisha C-H is up for the video?), the declaration of independence Single, and the rock-powered assertiveness course that is If You're Gonna. And she comes out of the self-consciously "street" track with guest Bizarre of D-12 on Drop Me In the Middle like a trooper. It does dip in interest on the ballads, and you do worry on the title track that she is about to do an Alanis. But very soon, she won't be anyone's little sister any more.

Label: BMG