Daniel Knox

Won't You Take Me with You Daniel Knox

What follows is a list of just a few of the locations where the songs on Won't You Take Me With You take place:

- A Chicago alleyway where he snuck into a building at night but got stuck inside.

- Late at night, well off the beaten path in Washington Park, unknowingly watched by a laughing, smoking stranger.

- A run-down mall, once resplendent and now forgotten.

- A hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee where a miracle took place.

- Driving along the highway trying to decide whether or not he wanted to crash.

Knox's music has always been filled with wormholes and stories. Characters and places that exist on the fringes of imagination and reality populate his songs - seemingly unobserved. There's always been a feeling in Knox's music that these stories are connected, and on this new record it begins to become clear how. "Every song on Won't You Take Me With You has a trap door that leads to one or more other songs on the record," says Knox, but if you look a little deeper, these trapdoors also dip in and out of the mythology that makes up his entire backcatalog.

The humour and longing of Disaster and Evryman For Himself are more assured. The mysteries of Daniel Knox and his recent mini-album I Had A Wonderful Time remain unsolved, but are in clearer focus. The rage lurking at the fringes of Chasescene has made way for something like acceptance. Sonically too, this is Knox at his most accessible and assured - the unconventional beauty of his piano style fitting perfectly with long dream-like stretches of synthesizers while Knox's rich baritone buries deeper within the music. Won't You Take Me With You exists as a line in the sand and a turning point, a perfect entry point into looking back on a fascinating career while at the same time the moment to strap in for whatever is to come.