Chris Isaak

Throughout his career as a suave, hipster balladeer, Chris Isaak has maintained an impressive balancing act, juggling roots rock, blue-eyed soul, and lounge-inspired camp. That's a lot of work - spinning such disparate musical plates without breaking a few - but Mr. "Wicked Game" kept everything in the air with aplomb, at least for a while. Songs like "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" (from Forever Blue, 1995) and "Please" (from Speak Of The Devil, 1998) had the same spark as his breakthrough records in the 1980's. Over time, however, Isaak settled into a comfortable, relaxed groove. Without the urgent sexual tension underlying songs like "Dancin'" (1985), "Cryin'" (1987), and "Heart Shaped World" (1989), Chris' creative mojo has become inoffensive at best, somnambulant at worst.

Not surprisingly, then, while Chris Isaak doesn't exactly phone in Christmas (2004), neither does he break a sweat. Like too many holiday albums, this one seems to have been recorded mainly to please established fans (of which I am one), and they will not be disappointed. When Isaak and his so-tight, so-loose band get chugging, revelry always threatens to erupt - though it rarely does. Of particular note is their galloping rendition of "Blue Christmas," a rapturous take on the seldom-covered "Last Month Of The Year," and a jaunty adaptation of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," featuring guest vocals by (of all people) Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks. More typically, Isaak and the boys sleepwalk through the standards, their playful parody of cocktail jazz teetering on the brink of becoming what it parodies. More disappointingly, Isaak interprets several songs - Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper," for instance - that seem tailor-made for his smoldering style, but his interpretations are rote - and the tracks end up more tedious than transcendent.

The most important offerings Chris Isaak's Christmas brings to the holiday altar are the singer's five original compositions. While none are masterpieces, each lends a distinctive flavor to an album that, without them, would be notably bland. Nearly all of these songs dwell on love troubles - an Isaak specialty. The doleful "Washington Square" paints a vivid picture of a lonely man suffering through Christmas in the big city, while "Hey Santa!" - a rockabilly frolic punctuated with mariachi horns - is essentially an alternate, happy ending to the same story. I'm especially fond of "Christmas On TV," a country weeper packed with seasonal imagery and sexual infidelity. Isaak reserves his most passionate performance, however, for "Brightest Star," an otherwise unremarkable profession of faith.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

So, I'd give Christmas a solid B-minus, but the original CD release by Reprise Records was just the beginning of the story. Over the years, Christmas has been issued and reissued in a dizzying number of configurations - the first two with Elvis-related bonus material. The first, initially sold only at Target stores, contained one extra cut: "Santa Bring My Baby Back," the spirited shuffle Mr. Presley made famous on his holiday debut, Elvis' Christmas Album (1957). The second, compiled for the Australian market, calls that track, then raises the stakes with "I'll Be Home For Christmas." Elvis covered this modern classic on the same album, and Isaak positively channels the King's mannered, quirky reading of the song. Given the lackadaisical pace of the rest of Christmas, these two songs - now extremely rare - among the most enjoyable tracks on the album. Yikes!

Another Australian reissue, this time on Universal Music in 2017, included yet two more songs - both newly recorded, I think (the liner notes do not specify). One of these, "Dogs Love Christmas, Too," would show up on his 2022 Christmas album, Everybody Knows It's Christmas (more on that below). The other, a fairly pointless reading of a seasonal warhorse, "Silent Night," would reappear on the deluxe edition, released on vinyl and digital the following year. So, you have to wonder why, when Jimmy Buffett reissued Christmas on his Mailboat Records in 2005, and when Isaak reissued the album on the revived Sun Records in 2022, neither of them included any bonus tracks. Scrooged again...

As part of the initial promotional push for Christmas, Chris Isaak taped a show for the PBS TV series Soundstage. Recorded live in Chicago and aired in December 2004, the set featured post-modern crooner Michael Bublé, neo-soul man Brian McKnight, and the aforementioned Ms. Nicks, and it includes all but one of the 18 titles from the 2004 editions of Christmas - bonus tracks included. Many years later, the show was released in a tandem CD/DVD package as Christmas Live On Soundstage (2017), with the full show on both media.

How to Play the Wicked Game

Chris Isaak parted ways with Reprise after Mr. Lucky (2009), having recorded for the label or its parent, Warner Brothers, since his debut in 1985. By that time, as mentioned above, he already had an association with Jimmy Buffett's Mailboat Records, and he would release a live album on Mailboat before starting his own label called - wait for it - Wicked Game Records. He would continue to tour, and he had long dabbled in acting, but his recordings became fewer and farther between.

In 2011, he recorded an album, Beyond The Sun, at Sun Studios, the famous Memphis, Tennessee, location where Elvis Presley waxed his foundational first recordings. Most of the songs had originally been released on Sun Records and/or recorded at the studio, which doubled as the home of Sun founder Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service. So, Isaak had a well-established affinity for Sun Records. In 2021, after Sun Records was sold by long-time owner Shelby Singleton to a company called Primary Wave Music, they signed Isaak as both an artist and curator. Under his guidance, the revived label began reissuing titles from the Sun catalog, reissuing Isaak's own catalog, and signing new artists to the label.

The next year, Chris Isaak gave us a brand new holiday album, Everybody Knows It's Christmas, jointly released by Sun and Wicked Game. Not too surprisingly, it's cut from much the same cloth as his 2004 album, Christmas, mixing time-honored holiday standards like "Winter Wonderland" and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" with new originals. Chris Isaak sounds great, with his voice only slightly burnished by time, and he's arguably more engaged this time around. The fact that he contributes eight (mostly) new songs is certainly a good sign.

How Would You Wrap That?

The cover songs are rote, if enthusiastic, with Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run" earning extra points for sheer volume. As usual, it's Chris Isaak's original compositions that make the difference. Several of them, including the hopeful "I Believe In Santa Claus" and doleful "Holiday Blues," have a distinctly old-timey, nostalgic tone. Others, such as "Wrapping Presents For Myself" and "Christmas Comes But Once A Year," address Isaak's ill-fated love life, with the punch line of the latter being, "That's too much for me."

Several of the new original songs include dashes of humor, and a few are baldly comic. In "Help Me, Baby Jesus," Isaak recounts the theft of his nativity scene, dressing it up like a southern spiritual, while "Almost Christmas" is a tale of last-minute shopping that does not end well. That said, the only original songs on Everybody Knows It's Christmas I don't recommend are the silly title track and the even sillier "Dogs Love Christmas, Too."

Chris Isaak, however, seems to think highly of "Dogs Love Christmas, Too." It's the second time he's included it on an album, and he'd include it a third time in the deluxe edition the following year, albeit in a lackluster new mix. He also released a lyric video, seeming to think the song was his next golden ticket. Sorry, Chris, it's no "Rudolph" or "Frosty," and it's made worse by the rather precious arrangement. It ends up sounding more like children's music than the potent roots rock of which Isaak is more than capable.

Happily, the 2023 bonus tracks also include "Begging Forgiveness," perhaps the best original song of the bunch. It sounds like Roy Orbison fronting Buddy Holly's Crickets, and it's a great concept - asking your sweetheart to forgive you for Christmas. (How would you wrap that?) For me, the song put a bow on Chris Isaak's long association with Christmas music. Approaching 70 years of age, he appears to have decamped to Australia, where he's always been extraordinarily popular. What will the future bring? As a wise man once sang, "This world is only gonna break your heart"... [top of page]