Chris Isaak

I was so excited when The Chris Isaak Show first came out on Showtime. We don’t subscribe, but they don’t scramble it very well, so I could watch it OK—although I didn’t get the full benefit of the nudity. But after a while I lost interest. That fickle feeling follows through to Isaak’s eighth and latest album, Always Got Tonight. I had to muster up the energy to listen to it, and, since I used to be a huge fan, it makes me want to say, “Hey Chris, it’s not you, it’s me.” (He once accidentally brushed against me in a San Francisco Italian restaurant, so I feel like we’re really close.)

With this album, Isaak continues to do what he does best: roll out the self-pity ‘cause the girl has done him wrong. Try the typical-but-satisfying first track, “One Day,” or “Worked Out Wrong,” or “Nothing to Say,” or … actually any of them, except the catchy “Courthouse” or the too-experimental “I See You Everywhere.” It’s a mood that’s worked for him since the late 1980s.

These days, it’s hard to picture Chris as the broken-hearted boy of yore. Hell, he’s getting plenty of chicks on the show. But do they looove him? I don’t care anymore. Again, babe, "It’s not you, it’s me." From now on, if I want a Chris Isaak song, I’ll pick an old one with a memory attached.