2022 CD Reviews - Billy Idol - The Cage (EP)

Billy Idol

The Cage (EP)

Dark Horse Records / BMG - 2022

http://www.billyidol.net

Following up on the highly successful The Roadside EP from last year, Billy Idol has put forth his 2nd four song EP in as many years.

And much like last year's release, The Cage is a perfect encapsulation of where Idol finds himself in the here and now. Working once again with longtime guitarist Steve Stevens, as well as with a few different co-writers as well, Idol gives his fans four more utterly fantastic listening experiences.

The title track opens up the disc and does so in such a way that my initial thought was they were kind of soft pedaling the intro and first verse. But after that first verse, the world just seems to explode out of the speakers and the music has a wild and vibrant feel to it. Idol's voice sounds great once again and he does it by delivering a great set of song lyrics. The delivery is such that there's kind of a swinging feel to his vocal performance at times.

The title track bleeds directly into the second track, "Running from the Ghost", without any kind of break in between. And this song is structured kind of like "Cage" in style and delivery. And there are some choice lyrics for the song once again. I really liked how the music gets really loud and kind of heavy during the faster portions of the song. Steve Stevens really shines in particular here.

For the song "Rebel Like You", there's a slight change up. The song is still uptempo but not quite as fast paced a rocker as the first two tracks. And Idol's voice is higher up in the mix of the song. His vocals are delivered more clear-cut direct and with an additional gritty feel to them.

The first three songs are co-written by Idol, Stevens, Tommy English and Joe Janiak. While I'm guessing that Idol himself wrote the lyrics, there's no real indication in the liner notes to confirm this. Still, whomever is responsible for the lyrics...they really outdid themselves. There are great lines woven into each song and as a whole, they are all just fantastic to listen to (and in some cases, to sing along to as well).

The final song on this EP is called "Miss Nobody" and it is markedly different from the other three songs. Written by Idol, Stevens, Sam Hollander and Grant Michaels, the track is also the "baby" for Butch Walker. He not only produced it, but he is credited with playing drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and percussion. Plus he did backing vocals and programming for the song as well. And on the seventh day, I'm guessing he rested.

My lame attempt at sarcasm aside, the track is really good. The music is once again upbeat in nature but this time around, Idol's vocals start out with more of a spoken word kind of delivery until the chorus kicks in. He's singing more directly then but with backing vocals also from Zelma Davis, there's a definite rhythmic vibe threading its way through the song and it gives the track an extra kick in the pants because of it.

I reviewed The Roadside EP last year and I gave it a perfect rating. It was just exactly what I needed to hear at the time I listened to it. It gave Billy Idol a big boost to the latter part of his career and sent me down a path to really discovering more of his music beyond the hit singles.

Well, Billy Idol has struck gold once again here. The Cage amply demonstrates that Idol really has everything working in his favor right now and he's just putting out some of the best music I've heard from him EVER!