Search - Mike Gibbins formerly Badfinger :: A Place In Time

Froggy Vocals Doom Badfinger Drummer's Debut

Eric R. Last | San Bruno, CA United States | 06/11/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Nearly 25 years after he last appeared on a Badfinger album, Mike Gibbins came back from out of the blue with this solo debut in 1997. Presumably, "A Place In Time" would only be of interest to hardcore Badfinger fans, and I certainly consider myself among this group. And obviously from other reviews, some of these fans are quite pleased with this outing, but to me it seems that this is really the bottom of the barrel as far as Badfinger side projects are concerned. It's largely a homegrown, low budget affair, with almost all the instruments played by either Gibbins (all percussion and keyboards) or his partner Rick Warsing (all guitars and bass). Gibbins wrote all the songs and handled lead and harmony vocals, as well as producing, engineering, and mixing the album. Warsing chipped in on harmony vocals. Gibbins, a drummer not particularly known for his songwriting (he contributed only a handful of songs to Badfinger), was in a sense kind of like Ringo with the Beatles. And like Ringo, as a solo artist he is the least compelling of the Badfinger alumni. (For those of you who think Tommy Evans never produced any recordings outside of Badfinger, I urge you to hunt down a copy of the fine, rare "Over You - The Final Tracks" CD by Evans with Rod Roach.) Gibbins' lyrics are sometimes noticably bad, such as this: "I think of you every day and every night, I think of you every day with all of my might". The recording and mixing is also pretty mediocre, with lead instruments too often failing to cut through the murky sound. The arrangements on some songs are pretty interesting, and guitarist Warsing does display a knack for a good hook. The biggest problem by far is Gibbins' froggy vocal croak. He sounded much better on his few Badfinger vocals, the years have obviously not been kind to his voice. With a passable vocalist (Joey Molland, for example), this album would have been far more appealing. Some of the songs are actually pretty good in spite of the overall problems with the album. In particular, the seven-plus minute long title track ranks right up there with any of his band-mates solo material, and the short progressive-rock instrumental "Warcloud" is interesting, with a complex, jazzy rhythmic structure. And even some of the weaker songs have echoes of Badfinger's sound. But realistically, only a major Badfinger nut would be likely to think highly of this album."

Solid Debut!

Morten Vindberg | Denmark | 02/08/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"A Place In Time is Mike Gibbins First solo album. Mike can write real good songs ; he wrote a handful of great songs for Badfinger. This album has several examples of good songwriting too. Songs like Layaway (written to Pete Ham), Time In, Day After Night all have strong melodies.But - in spite of many good songs the album somehow lacks excitement. Some of the tracks go on for too long; The sound is pretty much the same on many of the tracks, not enough variation. Mike's singing and playing is good, though, so the album is well worth going for. Play half of it at the time, then it's fine.A remastered version has been released containing two bonus-tracks; Believe Me and Bahamas . My favourites:Time In and Day After Night"