Gary John Barden – Eleventh Hour

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While not involved in the new album from what was his main bill-payer Michael Schenker Group, Gary John Barden’s (adding his middle name whenever he releases solo music) fourth solo album comes three years after the last one but is more of a hit-and-miss affair than it should be. Somehow on the same album there are great tracks like opener Baghdad, Easy Does It (which somehow manages to go from a KISS-esque groove riff to fast blues and back and make it work), mean and heavy pair We Are Dead and Before The Eyes of The World, or Billy Idol-ish groover Blackmail, and there’s utter dross like appalling car-themed love song Would You Wanna Do (which could have been a decent catchy rock song if it weren’t for the ridiculous lyrics). In between there are harmless upbeat rockers some of which (Fallen By The Wayside, Don’t Take Me For A Loser, All In) don’t really add much except a longing for another of the better songs, while some are real gems like Child of Sorrow and Shine A Light On Me. Even with the throwaway stuff, this is what Barden made his name doing, so it might not be so much of a disappointment to his long-time fans, but really he should have moved on by now and grown up a bit as a song-writer. As a melodic hard rock album, Barden’s bread and butter, there’s not a great deal wrong with Eleventh Hour, on the scale of melodic hard rock albums, horrible lyrics being a statutary part of that, it’s just not as memorable as often as it should be, making it doubly disappointing that the gulf in quality between the high and low points is so vast. At least there are no ballads.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Gary John Barden