Chris Isaak: Classic or Dud?

I have always wanted to like Chris Isaak's other stuff because of Wicked Game' and I feel like I've given him a fair chance. My problem is that his other attempts to write this song over again (which, I agree, would be just fine)are not nearly as good. I wouldn't say outright dud though, cause that song is still great.

I'm listening to 'Somebody's Crying' right now and it is a supremely sublime pop song. The only bad thing about it is that it's only 2 minutes and 47 seconds long.

He's at least classic for all of his cameos in Jonathan Demme's movies.

someone explain this

Pretty good track list, if a bit odd.

I'm disappointed there's not more love for Chris Isaak on ILM.

I only got the self title dalbum, which I played to death while in college. What should I get next? Maybe just the best of?

san francisco days!

I only really know Wicked Game, but I like it. It's cleverly produced in that it gets a hell of a lot of atmosphere out of quite a minimal arrangement.

Heart-Shaped World is a very fine minor record I always think I should play more often (and then forget). The one with "Somebody's Cryin'" isn't bad either.

he's pretty fucking pedestrian

and i don't actually mind certain songs. it's just that he doesn't vary it up at all, and probably doesn't have the compotency to do so.

he was 51 yesterday.

he's hott.

it's just that he doesn't vary it up at all, and probably doesn't have the compotency to do so.

word is he's working on a single with fabolous. timbo back at the helm. now who's incompetent?!

pedestrian, fair enough at times. but he's a niche kinda artist. what do you expect?

i do love the Eyes Wide Shut usage of that song - great scene, graet mood

I have to say I've always loved "Things Go Wrong."

david lynch directed the video for Wicked Game.

No he didn't.

That was Herb Ritts (in that very 90's fashion stylee)

It was used in Lynch's "Wild at Heart" during the fatal crash scene.

About 15 years ago i was talking to record-store owner (and complete failure) who recommended Isaak saying that "tastes change as you get older". I still find his whitebread version of pablum undigestable and probably won't until i reach my shuffleboard years.

I can see why lots of folks like him, i'm just not one of them. For that mellow, "adult" sound, I'll take Nicolai Dunger or Thomas Dybdahl.

Lynch directed a video for Wicked Game, just not the helena christensen beach romp one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iXAlSDq34A

"Two Hearts." What a lovely trifle. That's all.

he's good in Fire Walk With Me. there should have been a show about his character and Kiefer's sidekick guy. maybe in the long-promised extended version there'll be more of him.

The Baja Sessions version of "Two Hearts" is really nice (as is the rest of that album).

Sometimes 'Wicked Game' is just the best song in the whole world. And one would wish the whole world is tuned into it, simultaneously, 6 billion people rejoicing in the hazy, sultry gorgeousness of this beauty. Fuck.

that album is a minor classic: I dig it out every year or so and play it, able to hum every song. "Blue Spanish Sky" and "Wrong To Love You" are favorites.

Oh man yeah, 'Blue Spanish Sky' is so so awesome.

haha alfred that's the second time you've used the phrase "minor classic" in this thread and it's still otm.

and yeah, "wrong to love you" is killer. i used to know how to play that. it's dead simple so i should go figure it out again.

Weird. Trentemøller just recorded a cover of "Blue Hotel" that's both a wildly variant interpretation of Isaak's original and still nothing like what I think of when I think Trentemøller.

http://soundcloud.com/finger-magazine/trentemoller-blue-hotel

first three albums are ace, and actually, the next two weren't too bad either.

i was just going to say "he should make a new album and tour" and I guess he's done both of these things and is touring now. although he's playing like, vineyards and crap.

Listening to his new album of Sun Records covers and Great Cthulhu, this is the best musical comfort food ever!

I wasn't especially tempted by this, but then got a freebie and it is surprisingly enjoyable. There doesn't seem to be a comment on his christmas album above. Since CI always reminds me of sunny US days, an xmas album seems like a bad idea, but it's actually OK...

this guy never ages.

does anyone remember his short-lived cable TV series??

"Look at all you happy people; wish I could be like you. . ."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcnSZwkwUMs

Total classic.

Forever Blue is just about as good as they get. I just didn't know it at the time. . .

Rest of his catalogue is good, too.

"Go Walking Down There" got lots of airplay here. Cool song.

"Forever Blue" and "San Francisco Days" were both great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9SXTfSxXUQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDhzMPvkoys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G-5quGyj1g

I love the fact he has more of a singing cowboy style voice then a "rock voice". Either he was born into that or he really understands guys like Roy Orbison to a T. Either way hats off to him.

Forever Blue is my record of the moment and I have Baja Sessions on the way. I'll also probably pick up the Christmas Record before the holidays come around.

Big fan of San Francisco Days. That and Forever Blue are as good as it gets for this kind if thing, quality songs included along with the presentation.

"Forever Blue" and "San Francisco Days" were both great.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, April 13, 2013 8:35 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i still think of these as his "recent albums" since they came at the tail end of my chris isaak fandom

guy seems to be in a writing drought--only one album of new material in 11 years

Yeah, what's up with Chris Isaak? He had a really solid winning streak, and then just sort of ... stopped? Or at least, stopped getting any traction? He had the rare (a la UB40) hit with a song off an earlier album, had cool cachet, had some memorable acting roles in hip films. He's really funny, good looking. Is it just a matter of pop culture moving on? Is he an act like Los Lobos, with a hugely solid and popular catalog that just became instantly unfashionable?

He's retired and living off residuals from The Chris Isaak Show.

He's one of the hosts for X Factor Australia:
http://www.examiner.com/article/guy-sebastian-chris-isaak-james-blunt-join-x-factor-australia-judging-panel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aufudfyHIaA

CLASSIC

yup

in more ways than one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K35PUYZJSw

still my fave despite its use in that dumb and occasionally creepy movie about how men are afraid of commitment (which i realize describes like hundreds of movies).

Depressing, sad story about James Wilsey's final days
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/king-of-slow-guitarist-james-calvin-wilsey-784335/

Wow. Thanks for posting, I guess.

“Jimmy Wilsey of the Avengers was a young musician doing really interesting stuff that was really supportive of the song,” Klaus Flouride, bassist for the Dead Kennedys said in an interview with the online site MusicRadar"

Avengers were so great, their music still sounds amazing

Anyway.... Wilsey used to post quite a bit on the Telecaster Discussion forums. Some great info there - recommend this thread for anyone interested in the 70s punk scene in SF.

Intense vivid memory of seeing Chris Isaak covering "Heart Full Of Soul" on Johnny Carson in 1987 and thinking to myself "that's exactly how I want my guitar to sound"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=304DVYd9SXc

Whatever you think of Chris Isaak or the song's overexposure, "Wicked Game" is an all-timer, if only for the guitar sound.

It's definitely worth owning his Best Of compilation.

Dude's songs are helped by always immaculate production.

The male Lana Del Rey

spot on

I love all his stuff, but especially Forever Blue and San Francisco Days. Totally classy, great songs and playing. He did OK for himself, but I was just thinking yesterday about a different timeline where he covered "Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon" and it was used in "Pulp Fiction." Isaak's "Solitary Man" is super:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBV3topsAVg

lol Siegbrain totally!

Lots of guitarist biographies released this year, but this is the one I'm looking forward to the most.

https://www.seattlestar.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/cover.jpg

"Wicked Game" alone is sufficient to ensure his place in the pantheon.

Love that guy’s music and the fact that he played both bass and guitar at such a high level. Apparently he had the classic super-addicted musician personality so I believe there will be a lot of S, D and R&R leading to agonizing inevitable slow and steady decay and organ failure.

He was quite a bit older than Isaak, right?

Isaak thoughts for the day:

San Francisco Days is the shit. I considered getting the red vinyl from RSD last year but apparently it's *not* the shit. The CD sounds pretty incredible anyway.

I haven't heard anything of his since The Baja Sessions, but everything up to and including that is pretty terrific.

He was always a musician following his own path, and he'd exclusively be a cult figure if "Wicked Game" didn't happen. As it is, he's both a minor legend and a cult figure. I think the LDR comparison is pretty apt, and he's also a bit like Richard Hawley. They're all retro-styled artists who manage to carve out a singular voice in a style which doesn't hide its influences and in fact displays them proudly, and never at all feels like a crummy watered-down version of the supposed real deal imo.

"can't do a thing to stop me" is the one that gets in my head the most, when "Wicked Game" doesn't.

I love the esprit du corps of "Two Hearts."

timeless + classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HLGHF-K75Y

He's so good. Funny, too.

Inspired by Lynch, went back and listened to his first ... five? They're all good, but the run from "Heart Shaped World" through "Forever Blue" and "San Francisco Days" is just sooooooo good.

"Wicked Game" is my default karaoke killer and I'm not proud but I do kill it

San Francisco Days and Baja Sessions are my two favorites, and they really work so well beginning-to-end as albums.

agree that everything through Forever Blue is pretty excellent, with the first three being the strongest.

Forever Blue is all heartbreak, all the time. The first time I listened to it I thought he decided to make it less depressing by closing the album with the bouncy, optimistic "I Believe" ("I believe that some day we're gonna find our way / I believe that some day we'll be satisfied / And I believe in a beautiful day / Yeah I believe it's gonna work out ok"), only to follow all that with "But not for me...". I love it.

San Francisco Days I treasure because my college station played it rather reluctantly; when "Can't Do a Thing to Stop Me" was the first single the deejay snarkily said, "This is supposed to be a departure from 'Wicked Game.' Right." But then "Two Hearts" sorta took off based on listener requests.

The success of Forever Blue caught me offguard. That same station played "Somebody's Crying" and especially "Go Walking Down There" a fuck ton.

interesting that Isaak has basically stopped making new music. he tours sporadically; the last time I checked he was playing some shows in Australia. does Christmas shows every once in a while. I imagine he still does ok royalty wise and was never someone who who lived recklessly or over the top.

He's been doing some joint tours with Lyle Lovett too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyJqADVZBSo