Equal parts hard rocker, glam rocker and punk rocker, Billy Idol has managed an estimable synthesis of the music of three decades on Rebel Yell, his second solo album. From the Sixties, he's brought a fair measure of pop economy and a kaleidoscopic palette of sound effects. From the Seventies, he's taken the larger-than-life sound of big guitars, thunderous drumming and industrial-strength singing. And from the Eighties, he's adapted the sonic Bauhaus architecture of new music, with its straight, streamlined edges. In short, Rebel Yell is a ferocious record, sharp as a saber, hard as diamond, as beautiful and seductive as the darker side of life with which it flirts.