Heart Shaped World

Chris Isaak's dark, sultry, reverb-drenched "Wicked Game" poured out of radios across the nation in 1990, pushing the sales of HEART SHAPED WORLD well past platinum. With its meandering melody, moody atmospherics, and Isaak's half-baritone, half-falsetto delivery, its popularity was no accident: the song is a piece of pop perfection. Isaak's aesthetic is heavily retro--he borrows from the high, poignant drama of Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley (and even his chiseled features and slicked-back hair seem like something off a Sun Records album cover)--yet he combines his influences in a fresh and compelling way.
HEART SHAPED WORLD holds to the promise of "Wicked Game," making for a record that begs to be played at 2:00 in the morning, with neon light streaming through the blinds. It has a haunted, heartbroken quality to it, with the spare instrumentation allowing plenty of room for Isaak's knee-weakening croon to unfurl. Most impressively, Isaak's stylish update of a classic sound makes the record hard to date, assuring its relevance for years to come.