Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest !, 8 May 2007
I was looking forward to this album with eager anticipation. I thought this would be just what 40-year old blokes need to kick the wife`s usual syrup-infested Xmas compilation out of the CD player. An album full of ass-kicking, Idol-tastic versions of the seasonal classics?.......Not bleedin` likely!
The cover is great..an uncharacteristically smiling Billy Idol, dressed up and seated at a piano a la Richard Clayderman. I smiled at the irony, fully expecting the opening version of "Frosty the Snowman" to blow my speakers apart. The smile waned when I heard the opening few bars, which sounded like the backing track was a demo for a cheap 80`s Casio keyboard and the vocal came in like a tipsy old pub singer. Not to worry.... I thought Billy was just having a laugh and that the real stuff would come later.
By the 4th track, my smile had turned into a look of horror as it dawned on me that it wasn`t going to get any better. I resisted the request from my wife, a Billy Idol fan herself, to "turn that junk off" and tried my absolute utmost to find the point where things would improve. That point didn`t arrive.
This album sounds like it was thrown together with a 'that`ll do' attitude in as short a time as is humanly possible. The truth of the matter is no...this WON`T 'do' !!
Billy is not a great singer in the classic sense, but has an endearing quality and tone of voice. If he`d ranted and rattled through these songs with his usual bludgeoning style, one could forgive him the odd duff note or bit of sloppy timing, but oh no.....Billy now thinks he`s a hybrid of Bing Crosby and Elvis.
Unfortunately, on this outing Billy didn`t bother to even learn half of the tunes properly.On "Let it Snow" this is most apparent....he gives up even trying to find the right melody on the middle 8 of the song. Whether or not he changed the melody on the verses intentionally as a bit of artistic license, or because he just didn`t know the song properly is anybody`s guess, but the end result is awful.
The musical arrangements are soul-less and sterile and do little to compliment the singer. "White Christmas" sounds like some wino singing to a dreadful karaoke backing-track (complete with wrong chords), as though the musicians hadn`t even taken time to research or learn the songs properly.
This album really sounds like everything was recorded as a first-take. Either that, or they proceeded with the recording process for a while until someone decided that 'almost passable' was as good as it was ever gonna get. Unfortunately, it never gets good enough.
What disappoints me most is that this COULD have been a great idea with a bit more care, thought and production.
As it stands, this album will do nothing to further Billy Idol`s return to splendour with "Devil's Playground" a year or so earlier and in the final analysis this may well end up being a project he`ll live to regret and prefer to forget.
Absolutely dreadful.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic, 11 Dec 2006
Billy Idol is a legend, even at Christmas. What we have here is a jovial, laid back set of Christmas classics performed with Billy's trademark tongue-in-cheek good humour and unmistakable vocals. You get the feeling that he has all the best intentions with this release and simply wants to entertain everyone as only he can at Christmas. Highly recommended festive fun!
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Oh my God - things must really be getting desperate!!, 12 Dec 2006
The ideal Christmas gift for the person you most least like! An album to prove with no uncertainty that Punk Rockers certainly do get very old (and tired). Whatever was he thinking? I could cry just thinking about how desperate poor old Billy must have been to either decide, or be persuaded, to venture into this area of certain failure. Bless!
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