Billy Idol
Devil's Playground

THE REVIEW

Introduction: Billy Idol has never thrilled me too much. I never quite understood where the line was drawn between the persona and the artist. His tough-guy poses, which dominated all the magazines in the eighties, led me to set him aside a bit, mainly because such a look corresponded to a rock-pop built for the charts. To be clear, some songs were good songs, but the production of those years dampened their impact.

Yet Billy Idol’s artistic birth is quite respectable. With his GENERATION X, he was one of the prime movers of the British punk scene as far back as 1975. Generation X was among the first groups in the movement to transfer pop melody to punk energy, something Idol would take to the extreme from '81 when he began his solo career, also adding synths and electronics.

In 2005, a full twelve years after "CYBERPUNK," which divided critics and fans, and at 50 years old, Billy Idol returns with the album of artistic maturity, or better yet, offers a summary of his career by adding new elements that could represent his possible musical future.

Having survived a terrible motorcycle accident in '90 and having overcome the usual problems with his various vices, little has been heard of him in these twelve years. I recall a good vocal performance of his on "Into The Night," a track on the first solo album by Tony Iommi, mastermind of Black Sabbath, released in 2000.

There’s great curiosity, then, for this album which alternates some punk-oriented episodes such as "Super Overdrive", "World Comin' Down", and "Scream", where the raw guitars of loyal STEVE STEVENS are front and center along with Idol’s sometimes more rebellious voice. And if the first two tracks are two very '90s punk songs, "Scream" is very eighties and wouldn’t be out of place on an album by Hardcore Superstar.

Then there are more modern and melodic rock episodes like "Rat Race", "Sherri", "Romeo's Waiting", and "Evil Eye", songs like "Body Snatcher" built on a vaguely metallic guitar riff, and "Yellin' At The Xmas Tree", a "Christmas" parody with lyrics focused on family discomfort.

But in the end, what remained with me from this album are the acoustic songs that revealed a different Idol. The acoustic ballads like "Lady Do Or Die", country and very western seem to come from a JOHNNY CASH vinyl, "Cherie", "Summer Running", and the cover "Plastic Jesus". With this handful of songs, Billy Idol discovers himself as a songwriter and leaves aside his suburban macho appearance to indulge in country and mainstream sounds. Could this be the future of the ex-rebel?

Surely an album to listen to before putting it aside as I was about to do. Surely it went completely unnoticed by the general public, and sometimes that’s a good sign...