The album that NEARLY KILLED Billy Idol's career | "Cyberpunk" - 12" black vinyl

[@justinedward6985]

I will always go down in flames saying that this album is a work of genius. The promise of such a specific and spot on dystopian nightmare makes him a bit of a prophet.

[@pyenapple]

He was nowhere near the pioneer of this, he was literally just a popstar trying to be topical. TONS of art and music was already exploring all of these themes and not in a cheesy popstar way. This was correctly seen as essentially a joke by anyone in the subculture at the time

[@NunoPlague]

This album is one of my favourites of all time.

[@Gloomshadow100]

it's a masterpiece, way head of its time.. when it came out I was blown away

[@Caduceus88]

Yes yes

[@Caduceus88]

Excellent concept album

[@robertfinck1275]

Cyberpunk was such a great album.

[@joaoantunes6630]

I actually love this album and on a quality hi-fi it really shines.

[@raggeragnar]

Brilliant album. Bought it on Cd upon release , found the British pressing on vinyl at a used records store 2017. One of my favourite albums.

[@anthonyscatena8475]

also as an engineer especially when I was studying music technology etc Billy Idol was a pioneer in using many devices for home users that now is the norm but at the time it was strange

[@silverbasscross]

Just listened to the album for the first time, being a non Billy fan I had no context about the type of music he did other than Rebel Yell, and the Cyberpunk culture is very interesting to me, so I had a go at it and I loved it Love Power Junkie, it's so silly it's great, I don't care a lot about the lyrics really, the drum beats were what mainly got me, those early 90s electronic sound, and how most every song has this short killer guitar riff I'd say if someone wants listen to the album, do it not thinking about it's a Billy Idol record, not that it matters a lot but people can't seem to do it

[@NikolaVelisavljevic]

Whiplash Smile is my favorite album but Cyberpunk is certainly a masterpiece too, in my opinion!

[@NikolaVelisavljevic]

Also, he had a whole Cyberpunk tour in which he did, in fact, perform songs from the album. :D

[@Gloomshadow100]

I loved that album when it came out, it was Billy making a underground album like Front242 , Chemlab with touches of Enigma. You gotta put yourself back in 1993, internet wasn't a thing for the average person yet.. Billy was seeing what was coming.. by 1998 the internet had arrived it changed everything. This album was from the zone between two eras.

[@pyenapple]

Hahahahahahaha. No

[@mariosjpaulo]

I bought this album on the release day and still love it to this day

[@Io-Io-Io]

I hate it when people pretend they knew what other people were thinking when they created their art. Anyhow, Cyberpunk is one of Billy Idol's best albums

[@anthonyscatena8475]

I bought this album when it comes out. From Hmv London. Billy Idol in the 80s I tended to associated with Hokuto no Ken Mad Max and post apocalyptic movies and B movies. Then in the late 80s early 90s he was more a rebel and womanizer thing. But 1993 was different at the time a japanese anime call akira came out and other anime of that type. There was also a 1989 van damme movie cyborg. The internet was fairly new but by 1996 it would start to explode more and more across the globe. This album for me is between this transitional period between the 80s where they imagine a closer future late 90s 21st century and and a real.implementation of those technology etc that really took place in the 90s. This album was a pioneer for the time, in japanese subculture was popular but in uk the punk movement was already dead and game console pc games started really to pick up. this album is controversial but i love it.

[@Gloomshadow100]

yeah I said the same thing, you had to be in your 20s in 1993 to totally understand this album, I was listening to Front242, Chemlab and Enigma at this time so I totally understood the album when it came out.. a transitional era

[@glennzornig4978]

The intro to Love Labors On holds the music together. Written by the Apostle Paul. No Religion describes the death of a culture when people become addicted to cyberculture and lose their humanity.

[@kalezuki9231]

I forget how old I was when I first found out about it / came across it. People even made a big deal about his hair. I never under stood the hate. But then again I have been a long time Idol fan....

[@danielhutchison7259]

Wtf this album slaps

[@ryanmcbride2695]

I kinda became fascinated with this album when I found a vhs tape of the “Shock To The System” music video at a thrift store a few months ago. The thing is the album isn’t to bad but my main issue is that it doesn’t sound very cyberpunk to me. Honestly I think the music video for “Rebel Yell” feels more cyberpunk but that could just be because it’s similar to the opening of Bubblegum Crisis. If I had to choose an album that sounds very cyberpunk I’d have to give it to “Because I’m Young Arrogant And Hate Everything You Stand For” by Machine Girl or “American Wasteland” by NASCAR Aloe

[@raubara8494]

Dude. Your timeline is veeeery inaccurate. He had is accident before releasing charmed life. Cyberpunk was then released.

[@johnmoruzzi7236]

He crashed when they had just finished the recording, he was messed up and on his way across town to see his mum…

[@zachwhitehorn7926]

I love your shirt. And I love seeing someone with genuine interest make a video as opposed to someone in a review rut. Fantastic! Subscribed. “The lyrics are shit... but it sounds pretty good” couldn’t agree more.

[@nealhanna5609]

They need to reissue this on colored double lp

[@averyroscoe91]

I thought about buying this on CD and now I will. At least, just to have it.

[@kevingartland723]

By far the greatest album Billy Idol ever released!

[@3vi1J]

I think this saying is overhyped. Cyberpunk was my favorite Billy Idol album. He got a lot of radio play from it too, back in the day.

[@cleiophane2287]

I don't understand thé title of this vidéo... Anayway, this album is one of my favorite albums I have

[@GeneralSpanky]

If ya didn't live though that era, you'll never understand...

[@Io-Io-Io]

His best album .

[@JohnnyDystar]

I do think Billy was onto something. But rather than focusing on the tech of cyberpunk, he pushed forward on other tropes in the genre. Geocities aesthetics with behavioral chems, non-euro-centric philosophy, and dystopian fascist opression for might-makes-right justification. Problem was, SF writers and their followings don't believe in pop Idols.

[@rebelshutter]

I must be one of few who think this album is amazing

[@trashdoktor]

Not at all,! As you can see by the comments, most people liked it as opposed to this clown's review.

[@jordil6152]

I'm not really a fan of him either--maybe in small doses--but I just this album on as a joke and really got into it. Maybe it was just a matter of time to make it dated in sound.

[@CaraStyles-jq2uv]

Maybe it was 2 far ahead of it's time when it 1st came out? But 30+ years later.It sounds brilliant.

[@viesturaunestereschannel1677]

Nice review! Keep up the good work!

[@trashdoktor]

Actually a disgusting non-review by a clueless twerp.

[@DanielGarciaNYC]

People hated it SO MUCH at the time but then it became a cult classic and people do like

[@iconic2310]

I recently founded bily idol and cyberpunk is probably the best lol

[@Jan123.]

I love that album. It is absolutely amazing!

[@Isthisreallymusic]

Buy a better turntable! The all in ones are shit!

[@freebird3520]

Seriously? Cyberpunk is awesome!! Please sell me that vinyl before you destroy it on that piece of crap turntable!!

[@emwjmannen2]

This album is actually misunderstood and underrated

[@fredericguignard]

I loves this album. Feel stupid now :)

[@nealhanna5609]

This is a great album! U have no idea what your talking about. People don't like change.

[@RappinAcoustic]

Hey, You look like the space quest historian!!!!!

[@sqhvinyl]

Pure coincidence, I'm sure. 😅

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

Of course it's "bad"; it was censored at the time because it was prophetic. Were you even alive for Rodney King's beating?

[@RedStrikerBeetleborg]

his weakest album, but it is an interesting listen

[@RealMonoid]

Lol 06:24

[@CrowGargoyle]

Dude... Going to have to disagree with you 100% on your take here. The opening intro track states it right up front. "With no nuclear war, the new battlefields are people's minds and souls, mega corporations are the new governments and computer generated info-domains are the new frontiers..." The songs touch on the VERY cyberpunk theme of what it means to be human in this dystopian near/dark future of designer bodies and build your own realities (as long as you can afford them). The songs view the question from a number of angles. From the view of the haves, and the have nots. From the view of the view of people who want to change the world, and those who nihilistically don't care. From the views of the hopeful and hopeless. It also touches on the "Style over substance" and "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll" themes prevalent in many novels in the Cyberpunk genre. (Such as Pat Cadigan's "Synners", John Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" [aka "Eclipse"] trillogy, or Neal Stephenson's "Snowcrash") While I do agree that the song Neuromancer doesn't have a lot to do with the storyline of the book beyond the obvious plugging one's self into a computer and "trancing" (interacting with the virtual reality of cyberspace and tuning out meat-space reality), which Case certainly does enough times in the book, it does give a perspective of the setting, and it's still a fantastic song. I picked this album up on CD when it first came out, and it remains one of my favorites, right next to Queensreich's "Operation Mindcrime" and Savatage's "Wake of Magellan".