Chris Knox: Yes!!

To the list of great eccentric songwriters—which includes Julian Cope, Robyn Hitchcock, Brian Eno and too few others—feel free to add the name Chris Knox. Knox, a New Zealander who also records great weirdness with the Tall Dwarfs, is musically and lyrically one of the most inventive people recording today, period. For example, "The Joy Of Sex," the very first song on Yes!!, features a list of opposites, a constantly repeating single verse, and a chorus consisting of the word "baby" chanted over and over. In anyone else's hands it would be boring and stupid, but Knox is a genius, and he crafts an acerbic, mocking, upbeat rant out of the definition of rock-and-roll nothing. All 13 songs on Yes!! are remarkable, even when they consist of the gibbering nonsense of which Knox is so fond. He's not infallible—this recording contains bagpipes, for instance, and the last 19 minutes are just one long, unlistenable sound-collage—but his failures are well-intentioned, elegant failures. They're also rare. If you haven't yet found out about Chris Knox, wait no longer.