When they were asked to return to the Like a Version studios, Australian band Mansionair already knew what they were going to choose to cover: Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”
“It’s always just stuck with me, it’s that smoky, ballady feel,” said singer Jack Froggatt. And while part of the draw of the original was the almost weeping slide guitar and Roy Orbison-like vocal from Chris Isaak, that’s seemingly one of the first things the band threw out when approaching it. Froggatt, along with Lachlan Bostock and Alex Nicholls, almost create a new kind of ache in their take on the song.
Their version has a driving drum beat and synths, slowly drawing us into the labyrinth to eventually abandon us. And the end result is no less haunting and captivating.
The 1989 original by Isaak first appeared on his third album, Heart Shaped World, but the song didn’t really break through until its appearance in David Lynch’s film, Wild at Heart.
