Badger - Time Will Tell

Genre - Hard Rock

Label - Self Released / Pledge Music

 

Track listing:

 

01 - Whatever Happened 2 Us

02 - Inside Out

03 - Lie Behind My Eyes

04 - Losing Faith

05 - When It Rains

06 - Time Will Tell

07 - Freak Me Out

08 - Suicidal Sunday

09 - Lost And Found

10 - Into The Light

11 - C'mon C'mon

Time Will Tell is the debut album from Extreme bassist Pat Badger, (hence the Badger moniker / title!) and its a pretty impressive affair.
"With all due respect to Pat Badger he’s really pushing his own personal boundaries here and putting himself out there in a way that he’s never done before in the past. Having never really been able to break through the Cherone / Bettencourt song writing stronghold that was Extreme, Pat has enlisted the help of songwriter/producer extraordinaire Bleu in order to produce this, his first solo album, though the Pledge Music platform. As you might expect from a Badger/Bleu collaboration the songs here are rocky, poppy, melodic and very, very catchy."
An important thing to note here is that Pat is singing lead vocals for the first time here, and I have to say that he puts in a pretty damn impressive performance. In fact, if you compare this album with Gary Cherone’s ‘Van Halen III’ and you’ll find that this underdog wins single every time!
With a sound that brings to mind Sixx A:M's more melodic rockers this album doesn't have a bad track on it. Opening with the powerhouse duo of Whatever Happened 2 Us and Inside Out, before slowing things down slightly with Lie Behind My Eyes, things get off to a great start.
Losing Faith is a great piano led ballad, whilst When It Rains proves to be a tricky little track. With a string section that almost fools you into thinking that this is going to be the third ballad in a row before kicking into a mid tempo-ed little rocker of a track.
Title track time will tell is up next and whilst proving to be a nice little melodic rocker it seems to lack some of the magic and energy of its predecessors. The same can be said of Freak Me Out, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this song, it just seems to lack that certain little umpth that the albums earlier tracks have. Things pick up again with Suicidal Sunday, which is a darker moodier track, a great little rock track.
Lost And Found is almost a full blown Extreme studio reunion, featuring Gary Cherone and  Kevin Figueiredo and proves to be another great little mid paced rocker.
Into The Light is a beautiful little acoustic guitar track that leads nicely into the albums closer, C'mon C'mon, which in itself is a great track and see's the album returning to the form that was set by its opening couple of tracks.

A great debut effort, and a solid album even if it does seem to loose some energy in the second half.

Well worth checking out!

Rating - 8/10