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.
