A big first step...

Don't Stop represents Billy's first step on the road to solo superstardom - a little tentative, but with great tunes. Take the pop-punk of Generation X, mix in a little eager-to-please pop and some of the trademark sneer, and you have a near-perfect EP. Most of the songs emerged from the last efforts of Generation X, with the cover of Mony Mony thrown in for good measure. A must-have, even for casual Idol fans.

Go BILLY Go

You can't beat Classic Billy Idol and this is it.

Billy Idol looking for himself

Like a Polaroid picture, this EP (four tracks plus an MTV interview) catches Billy Idol at the beginning of his solo career - a furious young man, who tries to hide his emotion under the raw energy of punk music. Idol was not, by all means, unaccustomed with celebrity - his just-disbanded group Generation X had proven it - but upon this occasion, we see more of him than he realized. Giggling throughout the interview with Martha Quinn, the bad boy of British-American rock-and-roll candidly demonstrates how much of a facade his onstage persona is. In a way, the interview is touching - both the artist and MTV were at the beginning of their careers, and they show a charming lack of sophistication.

Musically, The EP has little surprises. "Mony, Mony" featured here in its first incarnation, and "Dancing with Myself", one of Idol's first self-penned songs (strongly hinting at masturbation, critics say), are the strong points of the record. "The Untouchables" and "Baby Talk" represent tentative steps towards other styles of music, but somehow stop in mid-air and seem incomplete.

Overall, this is a good album, but not a phenomenal one, and its interest is mainly for fans or music historians. Billy Idol was not only dancing WITH, but also looking FOR himself.