A toothsome prancer in Apache war paint and buccaneer drag, Adam Ant delivered the kickiest high-concept camp rock since T. Rex. Ant music – twang guitar, Bo Diddley beats, gigolo teasing – ruled England for one long tinsel moment in the early '80s. But since Manners and Physique (1989), he's been MIA. Wonderful lacks the frothy silliness of Ant at his most atomic, but it's polished,...

Friend or Foe, Adam Ant's fourth album, confirms the diagnosis indicated by his third LP, Prince Charming: Adam is a man with limited musical ideas, and apparently he used them all up on Kings of the Wild Frontier, the record that made him a star in England. Much of his latest LP simply reprises the familiar elements – ersatz tribal drumming, chanted background vocals and reverb-heavy lead...

From the come-hither smirk he sports on the cover to the nearly nude portrait on the inner sleeve, it's clear that Adam Ant has but one thing on his mind: sales. Having finally grasped that it wasn't his music or philosophy that earned him a following so much as his cheekbones and penchant for romance-novel costumes, Adam is understandably milking it for all it's worth. Forget "Antmusic for...