Russ Hockenbury
12/27/06, 06:19 PM
Drake Bell – It’s Only Time
Label: Universal/Motown
Release Date: December 5, 2006
Watching Drake Bell on Nickelodeon’s Drake and Josh (I teach elementary school, give me a break) and knowing of his passion for music, I’ve always felt that Mr. Bell could go one of two ways in his career. He could naturally ascend to the tween kingdom throne beside the Hilary Duffs of the world. Or he could be a more universal success like a Justin Timberlake. His acting and comedic timing are better than both of the aforementioned former child stars that found their stardom on similar kiddie cable shows and he comes to the table with more credibility by playing his own instruments and writing his own music.
As good an actor as Bell is and as much as I’m a fan, I can’t sit here and pretend that It’s Only Time is a good album. It’s certainly not. Even though Bell has always been an actor in children’s television, you forever had the sneaking suspiscion that he was cooler than that. Whether it was the Death By Stereo stickers that painted the Drake & Josh set or the way his clothes and hair seemed to get tighter and more hip with every episode. He was edgy, for Nickelodeon. On It’s Only Time he comes off about as dangerous as a stuffed animal parade in your little sister’s bedroom.
Bell is said to be an “old soul” and while there’s certainly nothing wrong with drawing more influence from The Beatles and The Beach Boys than The Get Up Kids and Taking Back Sunday, his elderly taste tends to bite him in the ass here. The ragtime number “End It Good” closes the album and namedrops everyone from George Burns and his wife Gracie to silent filmmaker Cecil B. Demile. On the keyboard-tune “Fallen For You”, one of the album’s most catchy tracks, he waxes that the object of his affection has “Buddy Holly glasses on a Betty Page negative”. Target audience?
Perhaps most irritating of all is the acoustic version of the Drake & Josh theme, “Found A Way”. It completely defeats the purpose of an acoustic version with its over-the-top pageantry. The track morphs from a stripped down ditty at the halfway mark into a full-on symphony complete with vocal trick, synthesized pet sounds, and enough affected notes to make Simon Cowell stare blankly with disgust.
As overproduced and without teeth as this album is, Drake Bell is still a better role model than any one of the XY versions out there today. His lyrics are clean and his music is non-threatening…to a fault. Which is why I’d rather have my students, siblings, or whoever listening to It’s Only Time than anything by Lohan, Duff, or Simpson. Sadly, Drake & Josh has completed its fourth and final season on Nickelodeon. So Bell will no longer have that built-in audience for his music unless he finds another vehicle for his talents. I haven’t listened to his independently released Telegraph (2005), but I’ve heard it’s darker territory than his major label debut. If he’s ever going to make it to Timberlake status, he may have to go back into the dark with future releases.
Uncle Jesse wrote songs like this on Full House: “I Know”
Kidz Bop: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The 88
Label: Universal/Motown
Release Date: December 5, 2006
Watching Drake Bell on Nickelodeon’s Drake and Josh (I teach elementary school, give me a break) and knowing of his passion for music, I’ve always felt that Mr. Bell could go one of two ways in his career. He could naturally ascend to the tween kingdom throne beside the Hilary Duffs of the world. Or he could be a more universal success like a Justin Timberlake. His acting and comedic timing are better than both of the aforementioned former child stars that found their stardom on similar kiddie cable shows and he comes to the table with more credibility by playing his own instruments and writing his own music.
As good an actor as Bell is and as much as I’m a fan, I can’t sit here and pretend that It’s Only Time is a good album. It’s certainly not. Even though Bell has always been an actor in children’s television, you forever had the sneaking suspiscion that he was cooler than that. Whether it was the Death By Stereo stickers that painted the Drake & Josh set or the way his clothes and hair seemed to get tighter and more hip with every episode. He was edgy, for Nickelodeon. On It’s Only Time he comes off about as dangerous as a stuffed animal parade in your little sister’s bedroom.
Bell is said to be an “old soul” and while there’s certainly nothing wrong with drawing more influence from The Beatles and The Beach Boys than The Get Up Kids and Taking Back Sunday, his elderly taste tends to bite him in the ass here. The ragtime number “End It Good” closes the album and namedrops everyone from George Burns and his wife Gracie to silent filmmaker Cecil B. Demile. On the keyboard-tune “Fallen For You”, one of the album’s most catchy tracks, he waxes that the object of his affection has “Buddy Holly glasses on a Betty Page negative”. Target audience?
Perhaps most irritating of all is the acoustic version of the Drake & Josh theme, “Found A Way”. It completely defeats the purpose of an acoustic version with its over-the-top pageantry. The track morphs from a stripped down ditty at the halfway mark into a full-on symphony complete with vocal trick, synthesized pet sounds, and enough affected notes to make Simon Cowell stare blankly with disgust.
As overproduced and without teeth as this album is, Drake Bell is still a better role model than any one of the XY versions out there today. His lyrics are clean and his music is non-threatening…to a fault. Which is why I’d rather have my students, siblings, or whoever listening to It’s Only Time than anything by Lohan, Duff, or Simpson. Sadly, Drake & Josh has completed its fourth and final season on Nickelodeon. So Bell will no longer have that built-in audience for his music unless he finds another vehicle for his talents. I haven’t listened to his independently released Telegraph (2005), but I’ve heard it’s darker territory than his major label debut. If he’s ever going to make it to Timberlake status, he may have to go back into the dark with future releases.
Uncle Jesse wrote songs like this on Full House: “I Know”
Kidz Bop: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The 88