Octo_Russ

Chris Isaak [Heart Shaped World] 

Back in 1994, i was searching through a second-hand shop in London, i was looking for interesting new Artists to delve into, i came across a cassette of this album, it looked real good, who was this guy Chris Isaak?, it cost £2 as i remember, and the subsequent disc i bought as a result, has proved to be a fairly major find in my extensive discography [it sits at 145 in my favourite albums of all time list], 'you gotta take a risk to find a fantastic disc', strangely Chris Isaak's other albums really haven't impressed me.

Chris Isaak is an American Rock musician and singer, now 54 years old, he basically specializes in old time Rock n Roll, almost bordering on Rockabilly i guess, very much in the vein of early Elvis Presley and others around that time, he has a discography of 14 albums now, this one was released in 1989, i really love the cover of this disc [one of the things that attracted me to it in the first place], a tremendously atmospheric black and white shot of Isaak in a motel room [photo by Lex Van Rossen], which just captures the loneliness i guess of being on the road, living out of rented rooms, and it's that damn No3 in the mirror that really says something?, the diffused light coming from a window is so excellent, casting wonderful light and shadow across Isaak, and the somewhat grainy shot creates a starkness all of its own, the colours of orange and blue stand out tremendously, and are carried over onto the back inlay, all in all a phenomenal visual package.

In a number of ways it's a fairly dark set of songs, there's sadness and loss in there, track 6 'Blue Spanish Sky' has some excellent acoustic guitar work, and it's a hazy lumbering song full of regret, very well paced, track 10 'In The Heat Of The Jungle' is strange to some degree, conjuring up exotic vocals and the darkness of night, but it's track 2 'I'm Not Waiting' that impressed me most, it has tremendous rhythms to it, lovely guitar work, both electric and acoustic, the opening acoustic guitar has a lovely echo twang to it [0:00-0:04], and the drummer has such an incredible gentle beat on the snare drum, reminiscent of using brushes, the vocals come in with Chris Isaak in beautiful voice [0:15+],

I have pictures in my troubled past

and they're shaped like broken glass

i have memories i kept of you

i return them with goodbyes

sounds like broken photographs that cut him badly, and such sad memories need to be binned in the past, there's this fantastic hawaiian guitar playing in the background, hitting just the right notes inbetween the vocals, and some nice strumming on the acoustic guitar in the chorus, a great little electric guitar solo after the first chorus [1:22-1:42], full of reverberant twang, and the second verse comes straight after with phenomenal effect [1:42+], it's just that 'skiffleness' to the whole thing, it's so catchy, forget about 'Wicked Game', this is the best track on the album.

Here's Chris Isaak singing Blue Spanish Sky on YouTube.