Record review: Daniel Knox - 'Evryman For Himself'

Posted by Sasha Geffen

It's refreshing to see an artist select an existing genre not out of familiarity or nostalgia, but as a specific aesthetic tool. Daniel Knox adopts the Randy Newman school of songsmithery to construct a highly theatrical irony, infusing the innocent and dated sound with often obscene lyrics and a lot of attitude. Evryman For Himself is a fascinating little gem of a record that raises real questions of genre while entertaining all the while.

Like Tom Waits, Knox excels at--and delights in--creating twisted characters to play out the drama of his songs. Evryman delivers quite a cast: we've got murderers, rapists, aging perverts and vengeful ghosts, to name a few. All are rendered so lovingly and often with so much humor that it's hard not to sympathize with them. Knox is deft in the language of misanthropy, a gleeful villain. The sensation of hearing filthy scenarios played out by a cheery, piano-playing lounge singer makes for a pleasant discomfort.