Drake Bell - It's Only Time

Genre pop Publisher Universal/Motown External Links Official Drake Bell Website Official Universal Motown Website

The second an actor puts on a guitar and starts to play a note or sing a song can be especially nauseating. Think Don Johnson's dreadful 80s hit "Heartbeat." Sometimes though, an actor surprises everyone with his or her musical chops. Think Jaime Foxx whose piano playing and singing in the movie Ray only hinted at his talent. You should be aware of both of these examples because they are helpful to remember while listening to Drake Bell's It's Only Time.

The twenty-year-old Bell is an accomplished actor who starred for years on Nickelodeon's popular The Josh and Drake Show and had small but memorable appearances in such celebrated movies as Jerry Maguire and High Fidelity. He also seems to have some musical knowledge as he has played guitar for over eight years and his influences are top notch. His bio lists The Beatles and Beach Boys as his favorite artists.

So why is It's Only Time closer in stature to Don Johnson's output than Jamie Foxx's? Who knows exactly but the majority of the blame should be placed on Bell's record label who must have had a hand in turning the 11 songs on the CD into an over-produced experiment that features so much sugary pop you might just have to go to the dentist after one listen.

The problem with It's Only Time is plenty of its songs feature needless homages to Bell's influences. The biggest culprit is the reworking of "Found A Way," the theme song to that popular Nickelodeon show. The first part of the song is decent enough with sunny harmonies but halfway through, Beatles-inspired horns and strings and sound effects come in and destroy what is billed as an "acoustic" number.

Other songs, such as "Makes Me Happy" and "Fool the World," seem like lesser numbers from a high school musical. Some critics might even say this CD is a lesser sequel to the smash High School Musical. They might be right but it is not as bad as say, the motion picture Speed 2 as compared to Speed.

Bell is obviously talented as he wrote some decent songs such as "I Know" and "It's Only Time" are the best. The former is a simple pop song that is extremely catchy while the latter actually rocks enough to prove Bell can play guitar rather well. They make you think he actually might have a good career in music ahead of him.

In the end, those two songs fully redeem It's About Time and make Don Johnson comfortable enough to know he is still the king of worst musical performance by an actor ever. Rock on, Sonny Crockett.