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Forever Blue With his singular retro-rock vision, Chris Isaak had already graduated from cult figure to music-video heartthrob when he delivered this 1995 album. But if all the surface elements are intact, he has assimilated his chief vocal influences, Orbison and Elvis, even further, and Isaak’s songs dig even deeper into his favorite subject, heartbreak, to shorten the distance between writer and singer. “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing,” the set’s opener, employs the same growling rock-speak as George Thorogood’s notorious “Bad to the Bone,” but without a trace of irony–Isaak lashes the listener with the torment of a betrayed lover, telegraphing fear, desire, and anguish as he wheels from rumbling accusations to keening falsetto cries. Elsewhere, he withdraws to the more lyrical croon of his previous work, his band wreathed with the throbbing tremolo and ghostly reverb that are their natural elements. There’s a folk-rock jangle to the lovely, forlorn “Somebody’s Crying,” a disarming directness to the simple but aching title song, and another burst of fevered agony, “Go Walking Down There,”which gallops over a perfect mid-’60s guitar arrangement. For all its letter-perfect allusiveness, though, Forever Blue feels authentically heartbroken, not just cleverly crafted. –Sam Sutherland
Customer Review: Sorrow on tap
Like many a songster before him, Chris Isaak has pulled together an album of heartbreak. Like Sinatra’s ‘Wee Small Hours’, he has pieced together a collection of songs about a certain theme. That theme is desolation. The exception is that he has written these songs himself, and they are written about himself. Do you need to know the specific details? No. If you have been through this, you will get it. And, if you are going through it, there is no better cure. You will feel the loss and anger and desperation all over again. Perhaps you are fine now, but you want to relive a little of the pain? Yes, this will do it. We humans are strange things. We cling to our extremes - we yearn to relive the best and worst. This album is rock bottom on record.
Customer Review: Back to Basics
There will be some sorry people who liked “Wicked Game” who will stumble into this album and be wondering wtf about two minutes into “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing.” Sorry, people. Supposedly a very bad breakup spurred this album, and you can pretty much tell right off the bat the Chris is pissed and more than a little broken up about it. “Changed Your Mind” is a perfect counterpoint to “Nothing’s Cahnged” from “Heart Shaped World.” Vert solid material throughout. One thing to note, guitarist James Calvin Wilsey, who shaped all previous albums to some degree, disapppeared mysteriously prior to this recording.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band A slew of albums by young white men out of their minds in love with music made by older black men came from both sides of the Atlantic during the mid-1960s, but two records really laid the groundwork for the decade’s blues revival–the self-titled releases by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers out of London and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band out of Chicago. Both bands were led by harmonica-blowing vocalists; both featured ascending guitar gods–Eric Clapton with Mayall and Mike Bloomfield with Butterfield. Butterfield’s ensemble, however, came of age closer to the roots of the music. The rhythm section heard on the group’s 1965 debut was hired away from Howlin’ Wolf, and Butterfield, while still in his early 20s when the album shipped, was already a familiar face on the Windy City’s club circuit. “Born in Chicago” opens the album on a gritty note that never flags through this 11-track landmark. The slashing duo guitars of Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop and Butterfield’s flash harp helped make Muddy Waters fathomable for a new audience and, decades later, it’s still easy to understand how. –Steven Stolder
Customer Review: The album that redefined blues music
There are a few hidden jewels of recorded music that actually matter. This is one of those albums.