Review Summary: Wicked Game rules, the rest of the album is pretty good too.
There’s a really awesome song on Chris Isaak’s dreary masterpiece “Heart Shaped World” called “Blue Spanish Sky” that immediately makes you summon images of Antonio Banderas cock-surely strolling into some random bar in Spain or Mexico and immediately making panties drop. You know how when he would say “I…..am Antonio Banderas” in a total “I know exactly what I’m doing to the bitches” tone? Well, picture what the perfect background music would be and you would have “Blue Spanish Sky.” There are a few reasons Chris Isaak is a legend, from being someone that David Lynch totally fapped over, to pulling off something that Roy Orbison was probably really pissed about
: sounding like Roy but not resembling a basement dwelling corpse, to making songs that are pretty much the epitome of sex. Isaak’s career was neither long nor exactly consistently illustrious, but his “I’m pretty damn good looking and can sing a little and I totally know it” confidence helped him unleash one great album upon us, and it’s a damn fine soundtrack to the more serene moments in life.
“Heart Shaped World” is best described as a classy exercise in fusing rock, blues, and jazz while throwing a massive tribute towards the badass crooners of yesteryear. Isaak sounded like Orbison, acted like Sinatra, and carried himself with the restrained class of Bennett. “Heart Shaped World” is a lot of things, but really it’s one of those albums you throw on when trying to relax, if you’re in a desert or Mexico or something, and most importantly, if you’re about to get laid. From the title track to “Blue Spanish Sky,” from “I’m Not Waiting” to more upbeat Orbison owing numbers like “Don’t Make Me Dream About You,” Isaak proves that he wasn’t just a one-trick pony who rode a ridiculously awesome song into the limelight and poster-ized himself on the walls of teenage girls, and horny cougars alike.
Chances are you know that one awesome song. “Wicked Game” is the type of song that is immediately associated with an activity, every second of it perfectly mirroring its subject matter, drenched with passion and oozing pure f*cking sex. Aside from having arguably the greatest music video of all-time showcasing a black and white film of Isaak railing Helena “arguably the hottest women ever” Christensen on some random Caribbean Beach, “Wicked Game” is just one of those songs, a song that unquestionably defines the very subject it’s trying to describe and easily lands as one of the greatest of the decade. More importantly, “Wicked Game” is a problem solver, (i.e. solving the problem that most of us don’t have a clue on how to romance a woman), and because of this, gives us hope. “Wicked Game” was given to us for a reason, and that reason is by now completely self-explanatory. Luckily, the majority of “Heart Shaped World” serves the same purpose as its greatest song, and lets us know that Isaak is kind enough to provide a literal blueprint to seduction without having to put “Wicked Game” on repeat.
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