Critic's evaluation
At 66 years of age and one year and six days after the announcement of The Roadside, Englishman Billy Idol resumes his activities in the studio and releases his new work. In the same period in which he breaks a 31-year hiatus without performing in Brazil, Idol releases The Cage, his third EP.
A warm dawn that, even linear, manages to gradually increase the excitement, is exposed through a guitar in tuned riffs and in process of awakening. Steve Stevens, together with the present drums of Zakk Cervini, who begins to define the rhythmic cadence of the song still in maturation, manages to build a sunny and contagious environment to the point of bringing the pop to the punk so consolidated of Idol, who soon appears at the command of the microphone. Tuned in his high-pitched timbre, the singer shows scraps of drives while getting in sync with the melody of Cage, a song of explosive and energetic refrain whose structuring was thought on the participation of the audience in his live performances, something visible from the words sung in chorus and in tone of combatant order by names like Tommy English, Joe Janiak and Adam Hitchell. With remarkable swing, Cage is a sensual product that immerses itself in hard rock garb while exposing the way the singer dealt with isolation and the effects of the pandemic on his own emotional state. Anger, disillusionment, hopelessness, and an unbridled desire for freedom. A great opener for The Cage.
Alongside Janiak's piano playing of hushed, low notes, Idol provides the dramatic, reflective introduction to a harmonically melancholic and heart-rending song that features instrumentation that draws out phrases with flirtations with flamenco while the vocal chorus brings an epic, icy, moving harmony. Sudden silence. Suddenly, a harsh and powerful explosion dominated by the distorted guitar in low acid riffs and by Erik Eldenius' drums, which introduce even more pressure to the melodic turning point, is built. This is how Running From The Ghost is presented, a song that narrates the relationship of the lyric character with the past, with the pain and guilt of events that can no longer be experienced or changed. Desolate, unfeeling, hopeless, and aware of a false claim to salvation, as stated in the verses "don't you pray for me" and "It's too late for me", the speaker of Running From The Ghost, as the name suggests, flees at all costs from such memories as the only way to get rid of remorse. Curious to note that, even intense and intensely dramatic, Running From The Ghost, a track whose harmonic-melodic structure resembles that of This I Love, single by Guns and Roses, as well as Cage, has in itself a captivating melodic structure.
A sound of a motorcycle engine being started is heard while the sonar of the motorcycle's ride getting gradually distant is heard. The Cage's most infectious melody, which promises to be the most infectious, is structured in such a way as to invite the listener to plunge into what promises to be the The Cage's most catchy tune. With wilder and bolder vocals, Idol places wild notes that introduce a nonchalant, spontaneous and even debauched energy to the song. Inviting the listener to immerse himself in the re-encounter with another individual so daring and soaked in the same unbridled sense of freedom as the main character, Rebel Like You has a kind of cinematically dangerous romance that has, in the tambourine, the main element in the construction of the rhythmic compass.
Joyful and mixing swing with electronic sonar also created by Grant Michaels' keyboard, the new set is soaked in a boomy and generous funk groove built by Butch Walker's bass that offers a differentiated melody to The Cage even in relation to what was offered in Running From The Ghost. Even more radio-friendly than Rebel Like You, Miss Nobody has in Zelma Davis' backing vocals the element that creates contagion, breaks the acidity of Idol's timbre and represents the central character, Miss Nobody. With a penetrating, intriguing, and engaging plot, the song tells the story of an imposing, graceful woman, content in her single status, but open and willing to meet people who can transform her life.
A work that shows and reaffirms Billy Idol's ability to compose captivating and penetrating songs. The Cage also shows that the Englishman can fuse elements from other musical genres without losing that punk essence that made his name in the 80s.
Introducing debauched airs, sensuality, and power, The Cage talks about the pandemic and its effects in a way that makes evident, in all four chapters, the will and need for freedom, as well as the longing for a sense of intensity. Still, the EP is also graced by an intimate track that surprises the listener.
Running From The Ghost is dramatic, melancholic, heart-rending and painful. A track that explores other types of harmony than those typical of Idol with his sensualized punk-hard rock like Rebel Yell. Not least because it features a melody that inserts flamenco melodic phrases that create another way to communicate suffering.
Besides flamenco, The Cage is an EP that, with Cervini's help also in the mixing, offers the listener a punk base soaked in sounds like hard rock, alternative rock, new wave and a pinch of heavy metal. A rhythmic aesthetic that allows the listener to feel again in the passage from the 70s to the 80s era.
This was also possible thanks to the joint production between Cervini and English. The duo helped William Albert Michael Broad to take a path that allowed him to experiment without leaving his comfort zone. A path that helped him to show his ability to compose and to resolve his name in the music scene.
Released on 09/23/2022 via BFI Records, The Cage is a penetrating and energetic EP. An EP that manages to be radio-friendly without being catchy. A work that brings Billy Idol as another figure that helps popularize rock music in a period that puts it at the margins of the mainstream.
