Billy Idol: Dream Into It – Album Review

Billy Idol: Dream Into It

(Dark Horse Records)

CD | Vinyl | DL 

Available 25 April at Sister Ray

3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0

Punk survivor Billy Idol is back again with his first studio album since 2014. It’s crammed with tales of rock & roll excess, but how much is for real and how much is tongue-in-cheek? Robert Plummer hails the showman.

Unlike many of his contemporaries in the Class of ’77, Billy Idol has always been an unashamed crowd-pleaser. And – whisper it loudly – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Not that everyone sees it that way. Trawl the backwaters of social media and you will find detractors ready to accuse him of being “punk rock’s first sellout”. But those people weren’t paying attention back in the day, because his mainstream leanings were evident from the get-go.

Take Generation X’s early singles. In 1977, the Clash were singing, “No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones.” Meanwhile, Idol was proclaiming his love of the Fab Four, the Stones and “Bobby Dylan” in a manner that belied his trademark sneer.

This was always a man with his eye on a place in Rock’s Rich Tapestry. And if truth be told, it wasn’t that big a musical leap from Gen-X’s power-pop to the precision-tooled glam-metal that gave him his US-conquering solo hits.

[embedded content]

Now Idol is returning with his first album of new material in more than a decade. Still, he hasn’t spent all that time hiding under a rock, as those who saw him live in the punk supergroup Generation Sex will attest.

Is that too much history for you? If so, you should have a word with Billy about that, because he’s definitely in nostalgic mode himself. “Once when I was younger/Back when I knew hunger,” he sings on the opening title track, which starts as a synth-drenched ballad before gathering pace.

That softens us up for the full recap of punk’s heyday on track two, flatly entitled 77. “King’s Road every weekend/They hate us and they don’t know why,” sings Idol, before evoking violent encounters with Teds and skins. “Fight back like 77” goes the chorus.

Just one problem here. It’s jointly performed with Canadian pop-punk standard-bearer Avril Lavigne, who was born in 1984 and has never known the dubious joys of Saturday afternoon shopping for bondage trousers in Chelsea.

Once you get past any pointless hankering for authenticity, though, the album has its moments. The sense of enjoyable caricature deepens on Too Much Fun, with Idol sharing his experiences of “passing out in swimming pools/Waking up in hospital”.

Nonetheless, he remains incorrigible. “I looked into my tomb/And walked away,” he says, but his passion for excess is apparently unchanged. Elsewhere, he sings: “I know I should be sorry but I don’t remember what I did last night,” adding: “I don’t feel bad for being who I am.”

And so the former William Broad continues on his boisterous way, at one point singing about John Wayne while sounding more like Jon Bon Jovi. Sadly, sparks fail to fly on Wildside, a duet with Joan Jett that praises “riding in the fast lane” but ends up as a midtempo AOR chug.

There’s a hint of salvation on Gimme The Weight as Idol seeks solace in the arms of a woman, ostensibly tiring of his drink and drug-addled rock star life. But as often happens here, the serious message is undercut by the pounding beat and the hedonistic vibe of the music. As Idol luxuriates in his own decadence, we have to ask ourselves: are these songs meant to be epic boasts or cries for help?

Anyway, the album saves the best to last. Buoyed by fierce power chords and a terrace-chant chorus, Still Dancing has the anthemic vigour of Idol’s biggest tunes and is rightly the featured track for promotional purposes. “Now I’m in control,” he asserts, which comes as a relief after the wayward behaviour he’s described earlier in the record.

So what does Billy Idol stand for in 2025? Well, there still seems to be plenty of goodwill for him out there. For every social media “sellout” jibe of the kind mentioned earlier, there are half a dozen people who remember his former band’s early records as a “gateway drug” to punk.

As Idol prepares to turn 70 later this year, he may be dwelling a tad too much on the twists and turns of his life to date. But he remains a hero of the “no heroes” generation, and there aren’t too many of those left. Whatever is going on in his head right now, making a riotous noise is still his best form of therapy.

~

You can find Billy Idol online here: https://billyidol.net/. He’s also on Instagram and X as @BillyIdol.

All words by Robert Plummer. More writing by Robert can be found at his author’s archive. He is also on X as @robertp926.

• Source: NEWHD MEDIA