Singer-Songwriter Daniel Knox’s new album, Mercado 48, was recorded over a two days in a Portuguese shop of the same name. Knox’s most unadorned renderings to date, these tracks are largely built around sparse piano parts and his signature baritone. That said, Knox still communicates remarkable presence, occurring as a cross between a raconteurial sailor home from sea, a vaudevillian troubadour, and a poetic aesthete bemoaning the human condition.
Even when he sounds as if he’s doodling with chord progressions in an empty saloon (as with album opener “Worst of All Worlds”), he’s understatedly compelling. While his lyrics are oblique (“Hell upon earth, long live the king / Never extinguish the burning wing”), his vocal is heartfelt and alluring, conveying humility and gravitas. This is a love song, a ditty hammered out at twilight as the bomb drops, a final plea before the killer twists the knife.
