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