Kings & Queens of the Underground

Kings & Queens of the Underground
Studio album by Billy Idol
Publication (s)	17th October 2014
admission	2013-2014
Label (s)	BFI Records
Format (s)	CD, download
Genre (s)	Hard rock , punk rock , new wave
Title (number)	11/12
running time	47:42 / 51:53
occupation	Billy Idol - vocals Steve Stevens - guitar Trevor Horn - bass
production	Trevor Horn (1.4–11), Greg Kurstin (2.3)
chronology Happy Holidays (2006) Kings & Queens of the Underground -

Kings & Queens of the Underground is the seventh studio album by British rock musician Billy Idol , released in 2014 .

Emergence

Billy Idol had released the album Devil's Playground in 2005, the recording of which was directed by Keith Forsey , the producer of Idol's most successful albums. The album reached number 46 on the US album charts and was the last studio album with its own material that Idol released by 2014. Then followed several samplers , u. a. the 2006 published Happy Holidays, which only contained Christmas carols, the 2008 published Idolize Yourself, on which only two new songs ( New Future Weapon and John Wayne ) were, and the 2012 remix album So80s Presents Billy Idol, released by the DJ duo Blank & Jones for EMI .

Despite touring the US and Europe numerous times in 2010, 2012 and 2013, Idol found time to begin work on his autobiography , which was released in October 2014 under the title Dancing With Myself . The album Kings & Queens of the Underground also tells the story of the artist, at the same time Idol sees the album as a tribute to his companions from the wedding of punk. Together with Steve Stevens, Billy Idol developed the concept for his new album, around which the individual songs should be developed. First, the points of contact from Idol's life that were to be processed in the songs were selected, then the appropriate songs were written. According to Stevens, as a songwriting partner, for the first time in his life he paid less attention to the expression of his guitar playing than to the song itself (“As a writing partner, more than ever, I found myself caring much less about the expression of the guitar than the song. ")

On September 15, 2014, the album's first single , Can't Break Me Down, was released .

Track list

Kings & Queens of the Underground
No.	title	Songwriter	length
1.	Bitter pill	Billy Idol , Eric Bazilian , Glen Goss	3:57
2.	Can't Break Me Down	Idol, Greg Kurstin , Dan Nigro	3:43
3.	Save me now	Idol, George William Lewis, student	4:31
4th	One Breath Away	Idol, Steve Stevens , Billy Morrisson	4:10
5.	Postcards from the past	Idol, Stevens, Morrisson	4:20
6th	Kings & Queens of the Underground	Idol, Stevens, Morrisson	4:53
7th	Eyes Wide Shut	Idol, Stevens, Morrisson	4:30
8th.	Ghosts in My Guitar	Idol, Stevens	4:47
9.	Nothing to Fear	Idol, Stevens, Morrisson	4:39
10.	Love and Glory	Idol, Stevens, Morrisson	4:29
11.	Whiskey and pills	Idol, Brian Tichy	3:43
12.	Hollywood Promises (bonus track of the download version)		4:11
Overall length:			51:53

reception

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Kings & Queens of the Underground   DE 8th 10/31/2014 (4 weeks)   US 34 10/30/2014 (2 weeks)   UK 35 10/25/2014 (2 weeks)   AT 17th 10/31/2014 (1 week)   CH 10 10/26/2014 (5 weeks)

After its release, Kings & Queens of the Underground was listed above number 50 in the most important hit lists: In the USA, the album entered the Billboard 200 at number 34 , in Great Britain at number 35 and in Germany at number eight. In Switzerland Kings & Queens of the Underground reached number ten, in Austria number seventeen on the national hit lists. The placement in Germany is the most successful since Charmed Life (1990).

The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that Trevor Horn had created “Billy Idol a perfectly crafted classic rock album” that always sounds like Billy Idol and that it “plays excellently on the morning radio”. Again and again "even this snottiness flashes up" with which Idol "swindled his way into the hearts of all those who found punk somehow great", but "the records are way too exhausting."

The Rocks magazine stated: “For the first time in ages” Idol “composed with his long-time companion Steve Stevens” - and you can hear that. The “feel for catchy mainstream rock, which, despite all its pop sensitivity, never too obviously looks at the hit parades” and “whose punk elements are more cool pose as a reference”, is back. The eleven titles included several top-class players. Kings & Queens of the Underground is the "adult version of the hit albums Rebel Yell and Whiplash Smile, which names the past without copying it cheaply." The album is "impressive".

The Munich evening newspaper made Kings & Queens of the Underground the album of the 44th calendar week of 2014 and wrote, if the record was “already Billy Idol's late work”, “hats off.” Somehow he managed to “get the picture of to convert eternal punk rebels into songs to which one can listen to Idol 's full maturity, "but without having to forego his typical trademarks." With the album, Idol catches up with people like Morrissey or Paul Weller in his own way, personalities who managed "to" age gracefully. "

The German online magazine Powermetal.de clearly sees with the opener Bitter Pill “that you shouldn't expect any rebellious, snotty hard rock here. No, there is a gentle melody, loops, electronic insertions and the unmistakable voice of the British. ”Overall, Peter Kubaschk sees a“ multi-faceted album between rock and pop, which reaches its climax in the middle section. There we have the really rocking Postcards From The Past , the wistful title track and the calm, pretty epic Eyes Wide Shut and Ghost In My Guitar , all of which are really strong. With Love And Glory it even gets very emotional. Class."

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Drugs can be great fun" Interview with Marcel Anders from October 18, 2014, Deutschlandfunk . Transcription on Deutschlandfunk.de, accessed on October 29, 2014
2. ↑ ^{a b} Steve Stevens Talks Autobiographical New Billy Idol Album, Ultimate Classic Rock, ultimateclassicrock.com , accessed October 29, 2014
3. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
4. ↑ Punk for Immortality sueddeutsche.de, accessed on October 29, 2014
5. ^ Top-class recollection, in: Rocks - Das Magazin für Classic Rock, issue 06.2014, page 95
6. ↑ Abendzeitung , October 28, 2014, accessed on November 1, 2014
7. ↑ Powermetal.de: The lip of the 80s is back. , October 21, 2014, accessed November 3, 2014

Web links

• Kings & Queens of the Underground on Allmusic (English)
• Can't Break Me Down on YouTube , accessed July 8, 2020.
• Save Me Now on YouTube , accessed July 19, 2020.