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It really is a nice day for a white wedding.

The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself sounds like an American Idol karaoke CD of Billy Idol music.  Fear not Idol fans, this truly is the very best of Billy Idol as it encapsulates his entire career.  Featuring 18 tracks including two new songs just for this release, The Very Best of Billy Idol is all the Idol you’ll need.  Opening with the classic “Dancing with Myself”, Idol still sounds great.  His music still sounds contemporary and fun despite being twenty-seven years old. 

Included are all of his hits, “Hot in the City”, “White Wedding”, Rebel Yell”, “Eyes Without a Face”, “Mony, Mony”, “Cradle of Love” and others.  With most “Best of” releases, I’m usually familiar with half the songs and like even less.  I was surprised how song after song, I knew it and still loved it.  The only songs that were new to me were the two new tracks for this release and the song “Speed” from the Speed soundtrack and something called “Would Comin’ Down”, by far the worst song on the CD.  Of the two new songs, both are good but “New Future Weapon” is the better.  It’s more Idol rocking out and the way we’re familiar with. 

As an added bonus, there is a bonus CD with thirteen music videos.  It’s very retrospective of Idol’s early career and leaves off anything from his last couple of albums.  That’s a shame as his Cyberpunk album was really good and the videos should have been included.  Since that album is overlooked on this Best of collection, I guess it stands to reason the videos would be as well.  If you’re a child of the 80’s, you’ll seeing “Dancing with Myself”, “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell” in all its lip snaring, fist pumping glory.  The last two videos are “Cradle of Love” (without the footage from The Adventures of Ford Fairlane) and Idol’s cover of “L.A. Woman”.  Both of these were directed by Zodiac and Fight Club director David Fincher.  These came out about the same time as Aerosmith’s “Jenny’s Got a Gun” and you can see Fincher’s early style blossoming. 

Overall, I can’t recommend The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself enough.  Billy Idol was the face of pop punk in the 80’s and his catalogue includes some of the most memorable songs from the early 80’s.  The second disc with all the videos on it is just icing on the cake. 

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