Title:Always Got Tonight By: Isaak, Chris Released by: Reprise Released on: 02/12/02 Rating (out of 10): 5 Date: 03/09/2002
Nothing's Changed
Somebody needs to save Chris Isaak before he kills himself. Aretha Franklin sang “Drown in My Own Tears” once upon a time; the doe-eyed Roy Orbison incarnate seems to be taking her up on it. It’s not his fault, though. We did this to him. Two words. “Wicked Game.” There’s no way he could have guessed the Ballad of the Truly Lovelorn was going to connect with the VH1 listening audiences like it did. The song was, and still is, astonishing. Fancy little wordplay damning the woman he fell for, then lost, packaged and disguised as a love song all dressed up with sleepy Dick Dale surf guitars and punctuated with one of the longest falsettos ever recorded by man. Then came the music video. Place the tune against black-and-white Obsession ad visuals—lots of sand, an ocean, a beautiful woman, plenty of pushed-up bikinied cleavage and, oh yes, Isaak—and together, the two made history.
The song, unlike any on Heart Shaped World, is one of the few that isn’t trying to make his self-stylized rockabilly yearnings palatable for the listening finicky. Beyond that, he’s Cheshire grinning all over the rest of the songs on the album. Really. None of the Ricky Nelson half-closed eyes numbers really come into play—they’re the toss-offs. Instead, he’s defiant. Whether he’s embracing all the jumpy leg swaggering bravado of “I’m Not Waiting” or copying Elvis note-for-note with the unbridled exuberance of “Diddley Daddy,” right up to including the hokey backup singers, he’s determined to have a great time.
He wanted to be a rock ‘n roll superstar. Even had what it took to get there, regardless of the fact he leaned so hard on his ‘50s influences. But he’s entirely too eager-to-please, serving up sappiness in place of the borderline country and blues waiting just beneath his skin to jump out. He does it well, sure thing, and when it’s emotion actually born of emotion (Forever Bluedid get written in the midst of a nasty breakup, after all), then offering up his trampled heart for mass consumption should be celebrated. Heralded even. Honesty tends to work. But after “Game” his focus changed from brooding rock ‘n roll outsider who fancied wearing suits to, well, brooding suit-wearer.
The signs of life do show up on occasion. Moments of brilliance are smattered across San Francisco Days and Speak of the Devil but, it’s a funny thing, they’re second fiddle to the stuff tissues were made for. The energetic “I’m Not Sleepy” and the lone instrumental offering “Super Magic 2000” (think Booker T & the MG’s with guitars) are clear indications that Chris Isaak and Silvertone would rather headline rockabilly festivals than be the best things that ever happened to MOR radio.
You’d think Always Got Tonight, his latest offering, is yet another album hell-bent on proving how much of a sorry sap he is. Instead, we’ve a man of two minds (and very bright blue airbrushed eyes), showing off just how comfortable he is to rest on his laurels. It’s an unmistakable fact that he’s a self-made genius—with the exception of one tune (“Cool Love”), he wrote everything, he plays a pretty passable guitar and, for as much as he taps into some of the warbling icons of yesteryear, there isn’t a singer out there today that sounds like he does. And it all sounds effortless. Somewhere in the middle of pumping out product, though, he crossed a line, tripped and ended up fooling himself. As in we’re in the know. No winks or nudges necessary. It’s no mystery he knocked this one off without even trying. It’s got to be hard when your most memorable song came out more than a decade ago—it becomes a relentless pursuit to try and recapture the glimmer of je ne sais pa that caused the fans to foam at the mouths in the first place, then exploiting the hell out of the formula. Rinse and repeat. Just ask Michael Jackson or Stephen King. They’ve been down that road. Then why isn’t he at least aspiring to do what he’s done before? Well, he does have that TV show to worry about. He can’t be bothered.
The two minds (a mind meld, if you will) come in with his recording love songs with some real meat to them. Not content to make songs complete polar opposites of one another—“Here’s a sad song. Okay now, here’s a happy one!”—he creates uptempo sad songs. He’s sad and forlorn, but it’s snappy! His emotions are strung out on the table, but it makes us all giddy inside! He really only toyed with straight rockabilly before ,the undiluted stuff—the stuff with the power to knock you flat with a honky tonk punch. Now, he’s growing more and more content with abandoning those directions completely. And it’s a damn shame. Then again, with a track record of “hit” singles that includes “Somebody’s Cryin’” and “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing,” it’s his tales of the heartbroken that have proven most profitable. Stick with what works. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it kinda mentality. No wonder he’s so happy being sad.
It’s possible Isaak’s trapped himself, though. His two major attempts at newness on Tonight induce major wincing. “Always Got Tonight” has him marring his voice unnecessarily with vocal effects. And “American Boy,” while unconsciously (consciously, perhaps?) borrowing from “Get It On (Bang A Gong),” is so completely New Country, it’s bound to land him a video between Alan Jackson and Travis Tritt, covering those infamous locks with a cowboy hat and chewing on a stalk of wheat. Perhaps tractors are in his future.
His most redeeming track doesn’t come until the end. “Nothing to Say” isn’t terribly special, its lyrics are typical Isaak (“Each time I’ve called you, you’ve said that we’re through/ all that I wanted is to be with you”), but he’s at his most sparse. The more unplugged he gets, the better. Placing the focus back on the talent rather than all the unneeded production that causes this one to come off sounding entirely too lush and manufactured. Want to hear him at his best? Put the plastic back in your pocket and download acoustic versions of “Game” or “Lie to Me.” It’s how he was meant to sound.
