Billy Idol - Vital Idol (1987) LP

Billy Idol's post-Generation X years are well represented on this 1987 hits collection. True, the haunting "Eyes Without a Face" is missing, but this is, after all, a fist-in-the-air party record (check out the cover for proof). Also sad is the fact that "Cradle of Love" hadn't come out yet, but hey, genius takes time. What you do get is the platinum wonder at his rocking best on "Dancing with Myself," "Flesh for Fantasy," "Mony Mony," and a whole lot of "White Wedding," plus enough Steve Stevens fretwork to have you playing air guitar for millennia to come.

What would the iconography of the '80s be without Billy Idol? Considerably less leather-bound and blindingly blonde, for sure. And what would the era sound like without its plethora of extended 12-inch "hit" remixes? This album focuses largely on the latter, to the decided disadvantage of the former. While an anthology of the era's best-remixed dance tracks isn't a bad idea, this doesn't come close. Lacking early hits like the rousing "Rebel Yell" and the apparently not-for-the-dance-floor "Eyes Without a Face," it's not even a real Idol greatest-hits collection. Every track here clocks in at five minutes-plus, thanks to ample doses of 4/4 drum loops, pulsing synths, and vocal hooks that are repeated ad nauseam. It may evoke a few dizzy club memories, but it's certainly no way to get acquainted with Idol's punk-pop catalog of hits.