BILLY IDOL Dream Into It Dark Horse/BMG

Seeing one of the great innovators in the field of mall punk (complimentary) making an album that’s half not bad but also halfrote, third-wave pop punk (derogatory) breaks my heart. Like, I’m genuinely sad that there’s no one in Billy Idol’s circle to tell him, “Your voice is still there, your lyrics are still fun, your cheekbones are still fab. You 100 percent can make an album of '80s new wave plastic punk and it will be the greatest thing ever. No, no, Billy, don’t worry about Machine Gun Kelly or the English Machine Gun Kelly, or even the drummer of Blink-182. All those people would not exist if it weren’t for you, but they are not your peers or competition. You are 69 years old. C’mon, babe. If you absolutely must rock, let’s do an album that sounds like Sonic Temple and be legends."