Chris Isaak can't sit still. The second successful season of Showtime's art-imitates-life-imitating-art pseudo-reality series The Chris Isaak Show is wrapping up, but that leaves little time for the quick-draw 45-year-old crooner to relax. The third season is already in development, and a summer tour supporting his latest album, Always Got Tonight (Reprise), is coming up.
It's always nice when the good ones cut through the dross. Case in point: the admirable ascension of London's Coldplay, which has built an appreciative following with its Gold-selling debut album, Parachutes (Nettwerk/Capitol). This disc has all the makings of a future classic as its songs swing from light balladry to intense jamming in the turn of a friendly chord.
Ground Control, this is Off-Road Gear One, a.k.a. ORG-1, as I'm still orbiting the earth in the experimental mobile-entertainment vessel I transmitted from last month. Do you copy?
Yes, I copy, ORG-1. This is Steve at Ground Control. I can hear you loud and clear - and without distortion, I might add.