Chris Isaak's Second Album is Great!

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm pretty great. Last night I appeared on The VHS Club Podcast to talk about Spaceballs with Katie and Nat and we probably spent more than half the episode just saying quotes from the movie. Today I'm going to be talking about an album I originally first heard on cassette many many years ago. The album is from 1987, so we're going back there. The POV for this post is just someone who listened to the album on cassette in 1987. Let's get into it.

Two years ago, Chris Isaak released an album called Silvertone, but it hasn't sold well. But, I think his new, self-titled, album is really good. It starts off with "You Owe Me Some Kind of Love" and ends with "Waiting for the Rain to Fall". Isaak has his full band on this album and it sounds good. He's also honed his musical style in the last two years.

"You Owe Me Some Kind of Love" is the quintessential rock song, complete with a guitar solo. It's also my favourite song on the album. Being on cassette, side 1 ends with "Fade Away" and side 2 starts with "Wild Love". I do think side 2 has the weaker songs on the album, but those five songs on that first side are amazing. I love it.

I recommend picking this album up. It's available on cassette, compact disc, and vinyl record at all record stores. It should be easy to pick up. Especially if you like rock music.

So back here in 2026, Chris Isaak is the first album I remember hearing when I was a kid in 1990. My dad owned it on cassette and I remember sitting in the kitchen of the townhouse my parents were renting at the time, while he played it on the boombox he had on the counter. I told this story over on Josh's Geek Cave, but he eventually got the album on CD and I ripped it to my computer as soon as I had the opportunity.

Lately however, I found a way to listen to these albums from the '80s as if I was listening to them on cassette. I looked up what songs were on each side of the cassette version of the albums and made two playlists on my iPod, one for each "side" of the "cassette". I listened to Chris Isaak  that way while sitting outside this afternoon, before I sat down to write this blog post. And it was still fun.

As I mentioned in the 1987 portion of this discussion, the album opens with "You Owe Me Some Kind of Love" and that song, along with the other four songs on side 1 of the cassette are probably the songs I remember most from this album when it comes to memories of sitting in the kitchen, listening to the cassette with my dad. 

Alright, that's it for me for today. Tomorrow morning, we're heading to 1998 to talk about Can't Hardly Wait on Rental Recommendations. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Peace out!