Chris Isaak, 'Mr. Lucky'

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Chris Isaak Mr. Lucky
Reprise
ESSENTIAL "We Lost Our Way"

Nobody cries like dreamboat crooner Chris Isaak does. In fact, he's got a song on his new album called "You Don't Cry Like I Do." The man has either had the worst run of bad relationships ever or just wisely recognizes that the hitch in his throat and his butter-melting falsetto work best when he's pining, lamenting, beseeching, or otherwise bringing the high, Orbison-ian drama. Either way, he continues to deliver the goods on "Lucky" by singing about the unlucky. Among the cast of lonely hearts are the bitterly betrayed man doing the slow burn on "Cheater's Town" and the remorseful heartbreaker who knows "it's easy to say what you want to believe" on the lovely, melancholy "We Let Her Down." Even the happy shouter of the rollicking "Mr. Lonely Man" is wondering how he can dry his tears and get the girl back. A couple of gifted ladies - Trisha Yearwood and Michelle Branch - show up to offer sweet harmonies and more Kleenex. Isaak's effervescent side pokes through as well from the swaggering galoot taking a bite out of the "Big Wide Wonderful World" to the optimist ambling through the New Orleans-flavored jaunt "We've Got Tomorrow." Broken or healed, Isaak, whose new Biography Channel series debuts this Thursday, doesn't need luck - he's got talent. (Out tomorrow.)

SARAH RODMAN