It should be known throughout the land that Chris Isaak is one of the coolest guys walking the face of this planet.
Don’t believe me? For starters, he is the only man I know who can pull off a sequined tuxedo without the least bit of effort while on tour with his bands of buddies, Silvertone.
He is also the star of his own television series, where he plays himself with his backing band also as characters, and gets with hot, naked chicks in every episode.
He has also made one of the sexiest videos of the last decade in “Wicked Game,” co-starring supermodel Helena Christiansen half-naked.
Still need more? For his latest album, Always Got Tonight, Isaak wrote most of the songs with a stick on the sands of a secluded beach in Hawaii. If that isn’t cool, you should re-examine what cool is.
Always Got Tonight does more than continue his reputation of cool; it also shows his undeniable talent as an American singer/songwriter.
There are no 100-minute organ solos, no overlapping synth layers combined with fuzzed-out guitar parts too distorted to be heard, only a four-piece band playing songs of love-lost and love-gained with a great California groove. And like the Bishop of Cool that he is, he does it all effortlessly and beautifully.
The first thing that stands out is Isaak’s unbelievable voice. He can dip, rise and croon with the best of them, which gives his simple songs new depth and soul.
This is why he can get so much feeling from such simple arrangements. On “Worked it Out Wrong,” Isaak seems to be crying into the microphone, but never sounds sappy and convoluted.
This is also the case with “Life Will Go Wrong,” where Isaak sings like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s were his microphone.
On the other side of the spectrum is “Always Got Tonight.” With a devilish grin, Isaak sings about a one-night stand with a funky beat to support him.
These overtones continue with the jazzy “Notice the Ring,” where Isaak tries to get some “forbidden love” from a married woman. In these songs, the snaky and silvery movements of his guitar come from the background to add some melodic spice to the bubbling jambalaya of sound. Very cool.
Jammed in between these two bookends of emotion are some of his best songs. This is exemplified in “Cool Love.”
The music is low-key and, for the lack of a better word, cool. His voice is slow and smooth, with just enough crooning to attach to the heart and tug oh-so-much.
There is also the poppy “American Boy.” Serving as the opening number for his television show, it’s so upbeat and happy that I’m smiling just thinking about it.
We all can’t be as cool as Chris Isaak; most of us just want his table scraps from the eternal table of cool.
This album is one of those scraps.
Pick up this album, listen to it with the girl you want to love, and let the coolness emitted from the speaker envelope you until it builds up to the point where you finally kiss her. Trust me: With this playing in the background, she won’t pull away.
Grade: A
