As he nears the ripe old age of 70, Billy Idol is in a reflective mood on his first album in more than a decade. It’s drenched in glue-sniffing, safety-pinned punk nostalgia, alongside a strong dose of self-reflection, as he takes a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly sides of his life.
With the decades and physical distance stretching out behind him from his Californian home, Dream Into It – both the woozy pop-rock title track and the album as a whole – evokes the ghosts of London’s King’s Road, the violence and the thrills of the initial UK punk scene that made him, the dirty squats, the street fights and the DIY creativity that shaped a young man who was full of ambition (and drugs) and empty of belly. It’s all oddly moving, even in the higher-energy moments such as Too Much Fun, a wry, unexpectedly joyful portrait of his boozehound years.
A trio of duets are tailor-made for each collaborator picked to spice things up. Avril Lavigne bounces in for the fizzy pop-punk romp of 77, which may, again, be a dewy-eyed look back at the original UK punk explosion, but musically could have burst straight from the Paramore cannon.
The dreamy, country-tinged John Wayne suits the laid-back cool of Alison Mosshart of The Kills to a tee. And Wildside is a subdued, sad and self-flagellating confessional in which Idol and Joan Jett hold each other up under the weight of their shared demons.
Regrets, he’s certainly had a few, and that theme of being a messy drunk and an unreliable friend and partner is a thread that runs through the whole thing. Thematically it’s a steady path, although musically Dream Into It is fairly erratic and offers quite a disjointed listening experience as it jumps from style to style.
So it’s telling that closing track I’m Still Dancing is the most obviously Billy Idol song of the bunch – it’s basically Rebel Yell reborn, a high-energy blast from the past that celebrates survival and still going out there to live those rock’n’roll dreams, albeit with the benefit of age and experience to curb the murkier side of stardom. This angry young man has reached his dotage, and Dream Into It serves as a lifetime of memories collected for future generations.
