Billy Idol

After a 12-year hiatus and a canceled Kansas City concert, Billy Idol figures it’s a nice day to start again. “Super Overdrive,” from his comeback album, Devil’s Playground, summons all the essential elements from his ’80s heyday — the sexual commands (ride my rocket), the cocky passages (Does he still have the magic?/Yes, he does), the searing Steve Stevens riffs. That final ingredient might be the most vital to his revival, because Idol emptied his sneers-and-innuendo arsenal on his Stevens-free albums to no avail. Idol couldn’t quite stock Devil’s Playground with worthy offerings, but he’ll jettison the album’s filler (“Screamin’ at the Xmas Tree”) in favor of a hits-heavy set list. A Pistols-packing punk who infuriated his early following by pursuing pop, Idol felt the electronica wind gathering in 1993 and decided that he, too, should blow. Now he’s sticking with his strengths rather than chasing trends, a strategy reinforced by a new-wave revival that would make reinvention counterproductive.