Released on 13 June 1989, "Heart Shaped World" was the third studio album by rockabilly heartthrob Chris Isaak, it was the artist breakthrough album featured the smash single "Wicked Game". The album spawnd three singles "Wicked Game", "Don't Make Dream About You" & "Spanish Blue Sky", and reached No. 10 on Billboard 200, the single "Wicked Game" reached No. 6 on Billboard top 100.
The album was originally released in the summer of 1989, and reached No. 149 on Billboard 200, but things were about to change, when Lee Chesnut music director in WAPW in Atlanta played the song "Wicked Game" over two weeks constantly after hearing and instrumental version on the soundtrack from the 1990 David Lynch film "Wild At Heart", so couple of years later, the single was re-released and this propelled the album straight to top 10 in USA, the video for the single filmed in black and white amd featured topless diva Helena Christensen and a shirtless Isaak on the beach became a landmark and it shown on heavy rotation on MTV.
Chris Isaak was no new to music, he released two albums before "Silvertone" in 1985 and "Chris Isaak" in 1987 but despite the good critics and merit, there was no commercial breakthrough, according to artist: "We got some radio play before, and I don't really feel slighted because most of the people I like who are getting a lot of play have six albums out or so,” back in June 1989, so this is only my third album. I just figure if I keep doing stuff that I like, eventually I'll find people that like it too. The tough thing about radio is I've met a lot of people in it who like my music. But it's hard for them to figure out how to play what they like when there's somebody up above them yelling 'you have to play this.' It's weird. I'll go to radio stations and the deejay will say, 'I can't play your record, but will you autograph it?'”
As a sort kind of prophecy, and even in spite his brand new album received good critics, originally only reached no more than No. 149 on the Billboard 200, so Isaak's label Reprise was about to retire any support on it, and his contract was under risk, the finest "Don't Make Me Dream About You" did little on the ariwaves, and after just ten weeks, the album dissapeared from the charts, son Isaak and his bandmates were back in the studio within a year to begin a new recording, so all in a sudden, Isaak become succesful overnight, "Wicked Game" reached the No. 6 on top ten and the album reached No. 7 early in April 1991.
But besides this heavy sexy track, the album is beautiful, Isaak aching vocal and a desolate sound underneath a drumm loop, a simple bass line and muted background vocals to create a haunting vibe, "Wicked Game" remain as an isolation and regret track until now, but you also have "In The Heat Of The Jungle" a curious six-minute jam between Isaak, Wilsey and the bassist Rowland Sally and the drummer Kenney Dale Johnson, the vibrant power ballad "Don't Make Dream About You" is a fantastic standard on its own.
The emotional "Diddley Daddy" so playful and tasty, "Forever Young" optimistic with its rapid two-step beat and fine guitar riff, the emotionals "Nothing's Changed" and "Kings Of The Highway", are enough rockabilly to captivate audiences, "Blue Spanish Sky" is a dramatic ballad, so slow and sad, and the distant trumpet solo give chills to audiences, it was supposed to performed by Chet Baker, but the trumpeter died in May 1988.
Probably the most enduring impact this album had on Isaak is that allowed the artist to remain authentically for years, an outsider and with image too uncommon to be a part of the common pop scene, but this album was the spark that powered Isaak to many opportunities, play roles on films and television: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Friends, Little Buddha, and his own "The Chris Isaak Show", finally "Heart Shaped World provide Isaak a unique embodiment of Americana style, achieving recognition and affection on his own.
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