Monday 24 January 2005

A much better Idol?

After more than 10 years away from the music scene, Billy Idol is set for a return this coming March with an album of new material out on Sanctuary, the label that gives has-beens another chance.

Anyone who's a fan of classic Idol should be quite happy at the news that Billy's buried the hatchet with long-time contributor and all around guitar God Steve Stevens. The last studio album by Idol featured a scab guitarist and really felt like a let down compared to the earlier Stevens driven work.

Also on board is long-time producer Keith Forsey, who sat behind the desk for most of Idol's initial releases, including the "Rebel Yell" album.

The new album, to be released 22 March, is called "Devil's Playground" and the new single, called Scream, already starting to cause a buzz, having been released to radio and digital download stores from yesterday. It can also be heard on the splash page of the official site.

The track is a return to form of sorts for the bottle-blond punk king. The driving bassline, the screaming guitar, and the sneering menacing Idol vocals are all present and accounted for. There's also some lyrics about "lemon trees" which is quite odd.

Whether the man can capture the success he once held in the early 80s (as encapsulated in the film "The Wedding Singer") will be interesting to see, but as other bands of the era like Duran Duran and U2 are still going concerns, anything is possible.

Also, you've gotta admit, given the choice of Idols, you'd take Billy over Pop any day!

Link: Amazon.co.uk
blog comments powered by Disqus