Chris Isaak is forever identified with his hit “Wicked Game.” It doesn’t matter if he had a few other minor hits. It doesn’t matter that he starred in his own TV show, which ran for three seasons, or that he had a brief talk show. He’s the “Wicked Game” guy. It is far and away his biggest hit. It is so far and away his most-covered song, it has 20 times as many covers as his next-most-covered song, which is really something. And of course, there’s the infamous video (one of two made for the song), which regularly appears on Best/Greatest Music Video lists.
Though the song is covered a lot, it still feels very much like his song. The combination of his croon – which is somewhat inimitable – and the surf-esque guitar is something that is both hard to do well and also hard to escape. Many singers can’t compete with that delivery, yet many still feel compelled to play the song pretty straight.
Well, the glitch pop duo of Natural Wonder Beauty Concept don’t play it straight on their new cover. Natural Wonder Beauty Concept formed in 2020. They put out an album in 2023 and their “Wicked Game” cover is their first single since that album.
Gone is the tremolo guitar; in fact, the band is mostly gone. Instead there are just synths, a heavily phased drum machine and a bass synth to start. Though an acoustic guitar is added after the choruses. Singer Ana Roxanne does not try to approximate Isaak’s vocal, rather she dances around it, mostly sticking to the melody but very much making it her own. Stick around to the end, because that’s when the soundscape around her gets weirdest.
It’s still very recognizably “Wicked Game” in the vocal, but only the guitar and occasionally a synth echo the original recording. Mostly, the backing track is transformed into a whole new sonic world. It’s too noisy to be dream pop, but that’s definitely the vibe. Check it out:
