Best of Chris Isaak

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Chris Isaak

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An intoxicating mix of Elvis Presley's early rockabilly and Roy Orbison's haunted crooning, Chris Isaak has maintained a sizable following over 21 years and nine albums despite having only one real pop hit, "Wicked Game." While all of his albums are inconsistent, they each contain plenty of highlights, making this 18-track Best Of long overdue.

Isaak wrote most of the songs on his albums except for the Baja Sessions project. Sometimes he's subtle ("Blue Spanish Sky," "Let Me Down Easy"), sometimes he rocks ("You Owe Me Some Kind Of Love," "Blue Hotel"). Occasionally, he builds from restrained to rowdy within the same recording ("Somebody's Crying," "Please") or breaks the musical mold completely, as with the sexy growler "Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing." Almost always, though, he sings about heartbreak.

Along with the aforementioned Isaak classics, Best Of includes four previously unreleased tracks. The bluesy brooder "King With A Castle" and the boisterous relationship ender "Let's Have A Party" are nice additions to the Isaak catalog, and an acoustic version of "Forever Blue" is even lovelier than the original, but a live, noisy cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" fails to approach the standard of the other enclosed recordings.

While far from a staple on the pop charts, the versatile Isaak has occasionally charted on other radio formats, with "Don't Make Me Dream About You" hitting at Modern Rock and his cover of Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man" making an impact at Adult Contemporary. Both are unfortunately omitted here. Other notably absent singles - which failed to chart, but remain fan favorites - include the rousing Yardbirds' remake of "Heart Full Of Soul," the hard rocking "Go Walking Down There," the breezy "Think Of Tomorrow," and the eerie "Graduation Day."

Isaak made some high-profile soundtrack contributions that were also ignored here. They include the secret agent parody "Suspicion Of Love" from Married To The Mob, the wistful "I Wonder" from Tin Cup, and the ultra-catchy "American Boy" which served as the theme for Isaak's acclaimed Showtime series. The quality of these omissions is such Reprise/Rhino could easily compile another 18-track set from Isaak's catalog that would be just as good. And hopefully they will, in the not too distant future.

The Best of Chris Isaak is also available in a two-disc edition containing a DVD with 18 music videos, some of which don't appear on the music CD. Fans familiar with Isaak's quirky humor will surely love the commentary that he provides for each video.

After he has recorded for 20 years, "The Best of Chris Isaak" is finally released. Cause for celebration? Yes and no. Chris Isaak makes vibrant, terrific music, but to have a best-of CD clock in at under 63 minutes is just shameful. Where is "Don't Make Me Dream About You?" That song was a hit, for Pete's sake! And it's a great tune, to boot. Excluding this song would have been somewhat forgivable if the CD didn't have 17 minutes of unused space on it!

This CD is a let-down. Long-time fans like me (and new fans!) should have been treated to a true restrospective of Isaak's work form the last 20 years. Instead, we get short-changed.

On the plus side, the CD's remastering sounds great. It's good to have those old songs with great sound quality.