Criminally Overlooked Albums Part 1

I listen to A LOT of music, and there's just some albums, Cd's, (whatever you want to call them these days) that NEVER get the recognition they deserve.

WELCOME TO...

Criminally Overlooked Albums (Part 1)

Today's pick is Billy Idol's Devil's Playground .

I should start by saying I was a huge Billy Idol/ Steve Stevens fan around the "Billy Idol" and "Rebel Yell" era. Billy's attitude, energy and voice cooked and with Steve's guitar work they were dynamite together. Billy was old school punk and Steve was hard rock/metal to the core, mix them together and the combination was awesome. Steve's playing has always blown me away anyway, his chord work, choice of notes etc is just perfect.

By the time they hit "Whiplash Smile" Billy was overboard with his addictions and politics were pushing him and Steve apart. Instead of writing together Steve was coming in after everything else was done and laying down the guitar parts seperatly. The cracks were beginning to show. When "Charmed Life" came out Steve was gone and although Billy's voice was still cooking the albums sounded pretty cookie cutter and things just went down hill from there....

When Steve came back and Billy did VH1's Storytellers a few years ago people were really excited and waiting for a new album...

Well it took a while (15 years since Charmed Life and 4 since Storyteller's) but Devil's Playground was well worth the wait. The first 4 song alone are worth the price of admission and put this as one of the best, if not the best Billy Idol album ever.

"Super Overdrive", "World Comin' Down", "Rat Race", and "Sherri" prove beyond all doubt that Billy is back and in better form than ever. Rat Race maybe the strongest Idol song ever recorded even with it's nod to his past in the middle. Billy's voice is actually better than ever, (You read that a lot in reviews, but it's fucking true in this case), he sings, growls and yells throuth out the album leaving you asking yourself if that really was Billy Idol, cause the old Billy Idol couldn't have pulled off half this stuff. Steve Stevens is still in fine form as well.

From there the albums goes into rockabilly, ballads, experiments, and all over the place but still very "Idol"... but it all works. The low point for me when I'm listening to it is actually the single "Scream", maybe cause I've heard it too much (my local classic rock station actual played it quite a bit when it was released.) or maybe compared to a lot of the album it seems to formula.

So why didn't the album do better... why was it "Criminally Overlooked". First I think it's because Billy's not a young cute looking kid. Second, cause I think he doesn't fit on the new video stations and their format of TV shows and then 4 or 5 videos by Good Charlot or Avril or Britney. Third I think he's actually a little threatening to younger kids, and finally cause I don't think he got very much support from his record label. And whom ever it was at the label should get their ass fired, cause this could have turned the public back on to powerful rock music instead of Nickleback crap. ("Look at this photograph...." I'm gonna puke, it's bad when your drummer quits cause he can't handle the lame crap you start writing even if it might cost him a few million $)

I've gone on long enough... It's a fuckin brilliant album, it should have destroyed ANY competition on the rock charts all summer, get it any way you can, if you like rock at all you will LOVE this album... Billy sounds better than ever... Steve Stevens sounds and plays as great as always... the songs are very strong.. production is great...it rocks hard by anyone's standards... Just buy the fucker already!

Gratuitous Hot Chick
(MAN, this one makes me mental!)