Early in 2005, ’80s superstar Billy Idol attempted a big
\ncomeback after more than a decade outside of the media spotlight.
\nDue to classic songs like “White Wedding,””Dancing With Myself” and
\n“Rebel Yell,” Idol has retained a modicum of enduring popularity
\nthat many artists who were popular during the 1980s can only envy.
\nIn 1993 Idol released a somewhat experimental rock album with
\ntechno influences that was savagely thrashed by the media and
\npromptly sank without a trace on the charts, banishing the once
\nmighty rocker to 12 years in obscurity during the era of grunge and
\nnu-metal.<\/p>\n
As the 21st century began, a wave of ’80s nostalgia began to
\ntake root in popular culture, giving many long forgotten bands who
\nwere hallmarks of that era a new lease on life. This resurgence,
\ncombined with an explosion of pop-punk, was apparently the right
\natmosphere in which the long-since washed up Mr. Idol felt his
\ncomeback would mostly likely succeed.<\/p>\n
Enter
\nDevil’s Playground<\/i>. The first sign of trouble comes at about
\n20 seconds into the opening track, “Super Overdrive,” with a chorus
\nlifted straight from Green Day’s recent hit, “American Idiot,” and
\nthe skeptic in me began to wonder whether or not this album would
\nbe one of those unfortunate cases of a veteran artist desperately
\ntrying to appear current by copying the very bands that he himself
\ninfluenced.<\/p>\n
My fears were quickly confirmed — the entirety of
\nDevil’s Playground<\/i> is a sad, embarrassing portrait of a
\nonce-decent artist pathetically trying to fit in with current
\nmusical trends and failing miserably at every single aspect.<\/p>\n
At his peak, Billy Idol’s songs were catchy, well-constructed
\npop-rock songs with a moody, seductive edge topped by his
\ndistinctive vocal style and personality. None of these new songs
\npossess the qualities that Idol is known for. In fact, it’s been
\nquite some time since I’ve heard an album so soullessly conniving
\nand cynical in intent, as opposed to serving an artistic need.<\/p>\n
Just picture a band like Green Day or Blink-182 at their most
\nobnoxious and multiply that factor by a thousand at the very least
\nand you’ll get an accurate idea of what this disc sounds like. A
\nfrat party couldn’t handle the sheer amount of ridiculous macho
\nposturing put forth in truckloads by the now 50-year-old Idol, who
\nis clearly trying to over-compensate and winds up producing quite
\npossibly the most annoying, juvenile vocal performance I’ve ever
\nheard.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, his old pal Steve Stevens, who played
\nguitar on and co-wrote many of Idol’s ’80s albums, is once again in
\ntow yet makes an impression no less awful than the singer himself.
\nLike Idol, Stevens over-compensates throughout
\nDevil’s Playground<\/i> for advancing age and wasted years by
\nplaying far too aggressively. This is also a product of
\novercompression, a disease that has infested popular music in the
\nproduction process in the past decade wherein volume levels are
\nmaxed to make an album sound as loud and powerful as possible,
\nburying whatever interesting subtle details lie in the music’s
\ncomposition to virtually inaudible levels.<\/p>\n
In this case, though, that hardly matters because the
\nsongwriting is as safe and generic as possible. Every last guitar
\nriff and vocal melody found on this disc is something you’ve heard
\na million times before, and usually done far better. The endless
\nparade of predictable chord sequences gave me the impression that
\nIdol and Stevens memorized a “how to write a pop song” book before
\nembarking on the writing and recording process, and enduring the
\nfruit of their labour is a torturous task to say the least. The
\nonly song that even remotely evokes vintage Billy Idol is “Scream,”
\nwhich unfortunately winds up falling prey to the same phony,
\ngratingly over-the-top posing that infests all the other tracks.
\nAnd the album ends with a couple of acoustic ballads that reach
\nsaccharine levels so jarringly obscene that Diane Warren sounds
\nlike Diamanda Galas in comparison.<\/p>\n
Poor Billy. Cyberpunk is a masterpiece compared to
\nDevil’s Playground<\/i>. This is likely the worst possible
\ncomeback by a once-decent veteran artist. Anyone expecting the
\naddictive Billy Idol personality of old will not find it here, and
\nuntil he wakes up and acts like himself, it’s never coming back.
\nThis is the work of an old man who has turned his back on dignity
\nand doesn’t realize that the joke is on him as a result. I feel
\nsorry for the blowhard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":27254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7229],"rating":[5620],"class_list":["post-38608","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-billy-idol","rating-rating-f"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38608"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38608"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}