Billy Idol - Whiplash Smile

Reissue of this 1986 album, the follow-up to his worldwide smash hit album Rebel Yell. 10 tracks including 'Don't Need A Gun', 'To Be A Lover', 'Sweet Sixteen' and more. EMI. 2006. Album Description

Way Cool Idol

I had the cassette many years ago and decided to get the cd for my collection. After not hearing it in years it's still as hot and fresh as ever. Best Idol cd I own. Rock on! January 7, 2007

Better than expected and still enjoyable today

Released in 1986, this is Billy Idol's third solo album. It is 45 minutes long, being released in the era when LP's were still popular.

The sound quality is very good in an early CD technology sort of way. The dynamic range is very good and it is crystal clear. But, is has that digital sharpness that was prevelant in many early CD's. There was something unnatural about the sound. It is the reason there were vinyl snobs in the early eighties, who felt CD technology was inferior. 20 years later, the digital technology is so much better.

It could be easy to write off Billy Idol as one of the untalented fads of the early eighties and the Disco/New Wave/Punk/MTV era. He was more famous for his personna than his music.

But, it turns out that Idol was a talented performer and songwriter. He does a great mixture of punk and new wave with a little disco thrown in. At times, he is like Elvis and at times he is like Jim Morrison of the Doors.

This is a very nice collection of songs. What is unusual is that the hits, To Be A Lover and Sweet Sixteen are some of the best songs on the CD. The only complaint is that this CD is a little more polished and a little more mature than Idol's earlier work. But, then many of the song arrangements are very good.

Much of the music from the eighties sounds really dated now. But, there is enough rock and blues mixed in to make this CD still enjoyable today. August 22, 2006

The Best Idol

This is by far the best album from Billy Idol. Much more mature in musical terms than before. With a brilliant Steve Stevens, this disc puts Billy into my preferred musicians. Listen for example the "Man for all seasons" guitar solo, it's a jazz solo in a rock song, I never heard something similar so well done. Powerful and poetical, his chemical formula is present in their maximum expression. August 10, 2006

BILLY ROCK STAR

Billy Idol's third solo album from 1986 is a worthy follow-up to the smash, "Rebel Yell", although with less sweeping majestic, and more stabbing, jerky guitar work from Steve Stevens, and drooling rock star Elvis/Gene Vincent vocals slobbering in echo overdub like a seductive drunk using his microphone stand to remain upright, while delivering homage to the Blueberry Hill wax museum, (Hey Baaabeeee!). You can almost smell the beer on his husky breath in the rock-star-in-a-shell revealed, "To Be A Lover". He grunts, screams, growls, and gets oh so Elvis baritone in the paranoid, music noir psyche destruction of "Don't Need a Gun", casually mentioning as if meaningfully delusional that, "the Russian roulette will fall", in a world where, "Johnney Ray is always crying". He sobers up for the pillow talk, languid, "Sweet Sixteen", a sweet and lingering "my little runaway" ode, and the all purpose melody and offbeat, "All Summer Single", has less to do with marital status, than it does the luxury a hit record can afford. I saw Idol recently in a 2005 concert comeback attempt, and dude, lose the snarl. That is so last century. March 4, 2006

Its Billy "William" Idol , COME ON

waiting so long after rebel yell , Whiplash delievers . Worlds Forgotten Boy takes off and doesnt stop.One Night ,one Chance is so menacing and the other radio hits please. So im writing this review a little late ,but, WHO CARES. While Charmed Life, his next release, is very disappointing , Cyberpunk, released after is actually satisfying. Rip it first if you dont believe me. January 24, 2006

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