Gavin B.

Title: Wicked Game
Recorded by Heather Nova
Composer: Chris Isaak
Date of Release: August 30, 2005



For a fleeting moment in the 90's, Heather Nova was the darling of the indie pop world... but by the year 2000, Heather's choice of album material was uneven and she began missing the mark more often than hitting it, resulting in a loss of a good part of her audience.

Heather Nova's music was hard to fit into any neat musical category. As the 90s progressed she seemed torn between the choices of: 1) remaining a successful but marginalized indie rock star, 2) transforming herself into a mainstream pop diva or; 3) developing a new following within the growing audience for roots music. It's the same sort of self identity dilemma that has derailed Liz Phair's formerly promising musical career every since she released her uncompromising classic indie rock album, Exit in Guyville in 1993.

For the past decade, both Heather Nova's and Liz Phair's musical careers have been withering away in the limbo land of almost-famous, once-ago-promising alternative musicians. Since their own respective heydays in 90's, both Nova & Phair have been constantly falling one step sort of successfully reinventing themselves in a manner that will jump start their stalled musical careers.

By 2005, Nova's record label Sony International made the business decision to release her new album Red Bird in the UK only, which resulted further depletion of her diminishing fan base. It's unfortunate Red Bird was never released in the United States. It's probably the most consistent album of her career and has become a musical treasure to the small cult of fans who still love her music.

The track on Red Bird that is the most riveting is her gorgeous rendition of the Chris Isaak song Wicked Game. Wicked Game has been covered by a legion of artists since Isaak released it in 1989, but no version has come close to his original recording, except for Heather Nova's. With her operatic vocal range and smoldering passion, Heather Nova actually trumps Chris Isaak on his own signature song.

It's not only Nova's singing... I've listened to the Isaak & Nova versions back to back on several occasions and the session players on the Nova version play the backing track with far more finesse and elegance that Chris Isaak's band. I'm not dissing Chris Isaak but Heather Nova deserves to enjoy her moment in the sun for recording this sublime rendition of Wicked Game.