Photo: Patrick Burke

Daniel Knox takes us on a mystical memory tour in “Look At Me”

Chicago songwriter Daniel Knox is releasing his new album Won’t You Take Me With You next Friday, January 15, and today he’s given us one final teaser called “Look At Me”. Knox says:

“Look At Me is a story exploring liminal space in life and in dreams. Particularly a carpet-lined tunnel inside the house where I was born and the magic (possibly real) place that it leads.”

While previous singles “Fool In The Heart” and “Fall Apart” have also found Knox wading into memories, “Look At Me” goes further back, to images that are vaporous in their delicacy and age. To aid in conjuring this atmosphere, Knox has eschewed the piano this time, instead building “Look At Me” on heavenly synth caresses and gorgeously burning guitar feedback, which do an impressive job of drawing the amorphous liminal space his mind is inhabiting. His lyricism follows suit, with the his imagery coming in brief, seemingly disconnected images that flutter in gently and fade just as soon. They flick from menacing (“Your favorite weapon is back in fashion”) to hopeless (“you have to remember you’re always alone”) to muddled (“kill the angel on your shoulder”), but they flow together with dream logic and liminal lucidity. Knox shows a different side of his songwriting here, but one that is no less beautiful or affecting.

Daniel Knox’s Won’t You Take Me With You is released next week, on January 15, via H.P. Johnson Presents. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.