Billy Idol

Billy Idol clearly has a sense of humor about himself, which leads to an age-old question: Does knowing that your work is impossibly dumb make it any less dumb?

Devil’s Playground mostly finds Idol playing recycler, which is actually better than when he tried to play futurist (Cyberpunk). Much of Devil’s Playground makes you wonder if Billy is putting us on, and the answer is never quite clear. "Yellin’ at the Christmas Tree" is somehow even worse than it sounds, not even succeeding at self-parody. Idol was putting his tongue in cheek long before The Darkness, but while "Scream," "Rat Race" and "Super Overdrive" all get the cock-rock attitude and big riffs right, they can’t help but feebly recall Idol classics like "Rebel Yell." Alas, it gets even worse. Old-fashioned rockers "Body Snatcher" and "Evil Eye" don’t even get the riffs and attitude right. Elsewhere, Idol rains on romance on "Romeo’s Waiting," with come-hither lines like, "You make me bleed like a Kennedy."

"Lady Do or Die" is at least something different, a silly little twangy number about tumbleweeds and train whistles. It’s one of the few arrangements that treats Idol as grown-up and allows him to explore some character in the nooks and crannies of his aged voice. On "Cherie," Idol even gets in touch with his inner Neil Diamond. Taken in context, it’s a welcome discovery.

It’s easy to defend Idol on a kitschy level; harder -- but possible -- to argue his actual importance in a historical context, mainly for sexing up our MTV and our middle school dances. But it’s damn near impossible to make a compelling case for Devil’s Playground. "Like Rudolph’s red nose, hearing this story never will get old," Idol shouts on "Yellin' at the Christmas Tree." Sorry, Billy. Wrong again.- Adam McKibbin

The most remarkable thing about the 12-year wait between Billy Idol's fifth album, Cyberpunk, and his sixth, Devil's Playground, isn't the enormity of the gap between records, it's that almost nobody noticed that he was gone. The odd thing about Devil's Playground isn't that Billy pretends Cyberpunk doesn't exist, it's that he now pretends that he's always been a metalhead, as if his posturing in the '80s was more than an affectation. With his trusty sidekick guitarist Steve Stevens in tow, Idol cranks up the volume and never lets it slide, even on the infrequent ballads. Occasionally, they lighten things up a touch and wind up with some killer tunes -- in particular, "Sherri" is a terrific pop song, while the lively, acoustic-driven "Cherie" is a deft delight (is it a coincidence that the titles are nearly identical?). On this pair of hooky, catchy tunes named after girls, Devil's Playground points toward an interesting, fruitful direction for Idol -- one that acknowledges his veteran status without sounding aged -- that he hopefully may wind up taking next time out. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide