Billy Idol’s “Bitter Taste” is Pretty Sweet

I really like Billy Idol. Vince and I saw him live a mere, uh, eleven years ago, and he was a lot of fun. Steve Stevens is as Steve Stevensy as ever, and that’s great, too (I maintain the solo he contributed to Meg Myers’ “Desire” in 2015 is a ripper).

Having said that, I truthfully stopped paying attention to new Billy Idol music sometime around 1994. 1993’s Cyberpunk is every bit the effort to be trendy that its title suggests, and then Billy did the theme song for the movie Speed which was neat, but I can’t tell you much about his work after that.

Having said that, I did check out “Bitter Taste,” the lead single from Idol’s just-announced The Roadside EP. And it’s pretty sweet! I mean, I think parts of it are just shy of being a straight-up rip-off of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” but I don’t really care. I suspect my fell Idol idolators will enjoy it.

Check out the song via the music video below. Something to keep in mind while you’re watching it: Idol’s face is almost always obscured by something. He’s in the shadows or there’s smoke blowing past his face or lights and images being projected onto him or they’re filming him through two filth-caked panes of glass. You never get a truly clear look at him.

That might just be a stylistic choice, but it feels, to cynical old me at least, like a bid to play down the singer’s age (he’ll be 66 in November, if you’re curious). I mean, look at the image of him on the cover of The Roadside EP (above) — it’s hardly accurate to what he really looks like now.

Anyway NBD, I just find vanity funny… especially because Billy Idol looks great for his age.

The Roadside EP is out September 17. Get it here.