Daniel Bedingfield’s ‘Stop The Traffic – Secret Fear’ EP: Listen

Ten years ago, Daniel Bedingfield racked up a pair of hits in the States with “Gotta Get Thru This” and “If You’re Not The One”, and kept the ball rolling overseas with smashes like “Never Gonna Leave Your Side” and “James Dean”. But the Daniel of today is a much looser, more free individual than the young man who felt stifled by his major label trappings in the early ’00s. “I like the notion that everyone who hears one of my new songs is going to swear that I should quit everything else I’m doing because the rest of it is shit,” Bedingfield says of his new seven-track EP Stop The Traffik – Secret Fear (out April 24).

“There are a million ways of self-expression, and I can’t hold to one sound,” the singer-songwriter adds. “There isn’t one sound in my head, there are thousands.”

Head below to hear these sounds via our stream of Daniel’s EP, a week ahead of its official release.

Our personal favorite is “Don’t Write Me Off”, which proves that Daniel still knows how to craft a damn catchy pop hook. “Don’t write me off just yet, you regret it / maybe I’m the one to call your home, to call your own,” he sings on the tender piano ballad.

As for leaving behind the business model of having a major label behind him — and just why it’s taken him so long to release new music — Bedingfield says this: “They created an image of me that wasn’t me at all, so I acted up. Did you ever purposefully act up to your parents? That was me. I did sabotage my career, if that meant it was the only way I could do things on my own terms.”

The EP’s title partially references Bedingfield’s charity organization Stop The Traffik, which fights to prevent human slavery and works to prosecute the traffickers.

Additionally, two more EPs are planned as follow-up releases this year — which is a score for the singer’s fans who’ve been waiting for any new material to surface after 2004’s Second First Impression.

What do you think of Daniel Bedingfield’s new EP? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!