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"With "Rebel Yell", Billy Idol crosses the final hurdle for an artist to produce a must-have album in his genre with his second album."
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5/5
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Although the second part of Billy Idol's eponymous first album was a little less intense, it marked the territory of an artist with an already well established identity. With commercial success also assured, the British expatriated in the United States wasted no time in following up this opus, striking while the iron is hot and not changing a team that has everything of a golden ticket. Indeed, the trio formed with the guitarist Steve Stevens and the producer Keith Forsey is now showing a great complicity and a complementarity which is at the origin of this medley of their mutual influences for a unique result. The punk energy brought by the boss, the hard-rock virtuosity and the ingenuity of Stevens, and the sound brought from both disco and new-wave by Forsey, give a unique music able to reach a large audience coming from horizons that have seemed so far incompatible.
The newcomer, entitled "Rebel Yell", a tribute to the bourbon that Keith Richards loves and with whom Billy had the opportunity to hang out a few times, takes the recipe of its forerunner but shows a maturity that has been enhanced and a level of quality that has been preserved from beginning to end. It is necessary to say that the majority of the titles were written in a collegial manner. Only the populating and narcotic 'Catch My Fall', zebra by the sax interventions of Mars Williams, was composed alone by the blond peroxide. And if the whole is of a flawless coherence, the variety is however of setting, going from the hard FM anthem of the eponymous title to the synthetic and ghostly ballad of 'The Dead Next Door', without the attention of the listener unable to slacken for a second.
There is no lack of peaks and no downtime to counterbalance them. 'Rebel Yell' opens the hostilities with efficiency and gives Steve Stevens the opportunity to display his raygun effect obtained by applying a toy against the microphone of his guitar, an effect that he will develop later with more specific material. Another single, 'Eyes Without A Face', a dark and scary ballad in memory of the horror movie named 'Eyes Without A Face', sees a part of its chorus interpreted in French by Perri Lister, the singer's girlfriend and former member of bands such as Visage, for a haunting and bewitching result. On the disturbing and hypnotic 'Flesh For Fantasy', the deep voice sways around a round bass, cold keyboards and an urban guitar before launching its attack on a scathing chorus. But each track deserves to be quoted, among which the anthem to the speed 'Blue Highway', hard-rock made more accessible by the keyboards and drawing a superb solo on its final, or the punkisant '(Do Not) Stand In The Shadow' with a direct and haunting efficiency.
With "Rebel Yell", Billy Idol crosses, as of his second album, the last stages which allows an artist to produce an essential album in its genre. If the integralists of each musical style concerned will find it necessary to criticize the unique mixture carried out by the singer and his acolytes, all the amateurs of pop, rock, hard, new-wave or punk with a little bit open mind, will be able to enjoy as much as they like this orgy of varied and unbeatable titles.
- Official website
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TRACK LISTING:
01. Rebel Yell - 4:50 02. Daytime Drama - 4:04 03. Eyes Without A Face - 4:59 04. Blue Highway - 5:07 05. Flesh For Fantasy - 4:39 06. Catch My Fall - 3:43 07. Crank Call - 3:58 08. (do Not) Stand In The Shadows - 3:11 09. The Dead Next Door - 3:41
LINEUP:
Billy Idol: Chant / Guitares Judi Dozier: Claviers Steve Stevens: Guitares / Basse / Claviers Steve Webster: Basse Thommy Price: Batterie
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READERS
4/5 (1 view(s))
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STAFF:
4.8/5 (5 view(s))
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