Chris Isaak

Getting a new Chris Isaak album is like buying your favourite zinfandel. You don't want either to mess with the formula you love, so the first few cuts on this, Isaak's first non-seasonal record in several years, are reassuring. "I've got a broken heart," he moans on excellent first track "Cheater's Town," showing that no one else right now can croon a lovesick ballad quite like this cat. He does mix things up more than usual later via two duets (with Trisha Yearwood and Michelle Branch), and a few up-tempo songs like the horn-fuelled "We've Got Tomorrow," "Mr. Lonely Man" and the swinging "Take My Heart." The duet with Yearwood on "Breaking Apart" is a lowlight, with its treacly strings and clichéd lyrics courtesy of schlock mistress Dianne Warren. His excellent band Silvertone (the one featured on the fine cable TV series The Chris Isaak Show) are augmented by such notables as Greg Leisz, Waddy Wachtel, Tim Pierce and Eric Rosse, who produced most of the album. This is not quite up to the consistently awesome quality of his early work but still likely to please the Isaak faithful. They'll also enjoy his evocative artwork in the CD booklet. A man with talent in many areas, Isaak is indeed Mr. Lucky.