NICK DRAKE
"Would you love me for my money, would you love me for my head, would you love me through the winter, would you love me 'til I'm dead?"
Five Leaves Left (1969)
Rating (Out of 10): 10
Tracklisting: Time Has Told Me/Riverman/Three Hours/Way To Blue/Day Is Done/Cello Song/The Thoughts Of Mary Jane/Man In A Shed/Fruit Tree/Saturday Sun
The story of Nick Drake is one of the most incredibly sad stories of anyone in the music business and yet it follows a familiar pattern. It is the story of someone with an amazing natural talent for songwriting and performance; the story of someone so sensitive and prone to depression and unaware of how incredibly talented he actually was. Nick Drake released 3 albums in his short lifetime before committing suicide at the age of 26 due to his lack of success in his own lifetime. Ironically, after his death, Nick Drake went on to become one of Britain's most successful and well-loved singer songwriters. When hearing the story of Nick Drake, it makes you wish that someone so talented had not suffered from such terrible depression, but it's one of those sad, ironic truths, that it was probably his depression that fuelled his talent for such beautiful melodies and introspective lyrics. The music of Nick Drake is very simple and very, very beautiful. His songs invoke images of english countryside, of nature, peace and beauty. He tells tales of ordinary, everyday things and injects them with something magical. It would be too easy to label the music of Nick Drake as depressing; instead, It is introspective, deep-thinking...special. Anyone who has ever had feelings of depression knows that listening to bleak music, rather than making you depressed, makes you feel better, comforted, loved.
'Five Leaves Left' is Nick Drake's debut album, and most deifintely his finest. It's probably the darkest of the three albums, yet it is also the most beautiful. It is very similar in style and feel to Tim Buckley's 'Happy Sad' or Van Morrisson's 'Astral Weeks'. It is gentle and subtle that you can almost hear the wind blow through it. It is an album with a certain haunting quality about it. Nick Drake possesses a very gentle, genuine, simple voice that compliments his unique combination of folk and country songwriting perfectly. Not much ever gets written about Nick Drake's guitar playing, which seems very strange as for me he is up there with the country's finest players. His very unique, complicated style of play has never been matched by anyone.
The album opens with 'Time Has Told Me', a track with a country feel to it. 'Riverman' is a very quiet, subtle track that sees Drake display some amazing guitar playing. There's something very soothing about this track. 'Way To Blue' is probably one of Drake's most famous and most played tracks. The lyrics read like poetry. It is incredible, Nick's voice is accompianed only by strings, to amazing effect. Incredibly beautiful, slighly chilling, the sort of song that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. 'Day Is Done' the guitar work here is incredible. plucked, I'm sure no one has been able to copy this style. violin accompaniment. And the lyrics are amazing. 'When the party's through, feel so very sad for you, didn't do the things you want to do, now there's no time to start anew, when the party's through'. Lyics that show a deep understanding, lyrics of someone intelligent, someone not cut out for this life. 'Cello Song' provides one of the more upbeat moments on the album. 'Thought's of Mary Jane' has a very hazy feel to it, the type of song to listen to on a lazy summer's afternoon. The album ends with 'Saturday Sun' with probably contains the most positive lyrics on the entire album, but as is the case with most Nick Drake tracks, the positivity is fleeting, hinting at a brief glimpse of happiness before the enevitable conclusion - "Saturday sun has turned into Sunday's rain.'
'Five Leaves Left' is a bleak, stark yet incredibly beautiful album. The main theme of the album is time running out, which is ironically fitting when you consider Drake's death at such a young age. Nick Drake had a special insight. Too sensitive for this world. He thought too much, saw things in a way no-one else could. It's incredibly ironic that he killed himself because of his lack of success and now 25 years after his death, he is considered one of Britian's finest songwriters.
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Penelope Kane - 17/10/2006
Heard this album for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it. Never heard of Nick Drake before. A friend leant it me and told me to listen to it and now I can't believe that i hadn't heard of him before. It's the most beautiful music ever. Everyone needs to listen to this. Spread the word. It's amazing!!!
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Bryter Layter (1970)
Rating (Out of 10): 10
Tracklisting: Introduction / Hazey Jane II / At The Chime Of A City Clock / One Of These Things First / Hazey Jane I / Bryter Layter / Fly / Poor Boy / Northern Sky / Sunday
Nick Drake’s second album is widely considered the best amongst his fans and this is due to the fact that it is by far his most accessible and it’s definitely the most upbeat. With it’s rich glossy feel, and it’s seamless blend of folk, classical and jazz, it is a timeless piece of music and one that signals Drake to be a musician light years ahead of his time. Within this 11 track album, 3 of which are instrumental, Drake proves himself as a writer of songs that defy genre classification. They’re not quite jazz songs, not quite folk songs, but they are fantastic songs, songs that are everything and nothing all at the same time. The 3 instrumental tracks show Drake’s skill at arrangement and musical direction and the guest appearances by legendary musicians Richard Thompson and John Cale prove Drake’s reputation and popularity amongst his contemporaries despite this only being his second album.
When some people think of Nick Drake they think stark and depressive, and while this may be true to a certain extent, it is definitely not true of ‘Bryter Layter’. The mood of the album is as the title suggests, the hint that happiness may be lurking around the corner, but it’s not quite here yet; the notion that you continue to live in the present, even it’s not perfect while hoping that it may get better, yet knowing deep down that it won’t, yet it’s ok, because you have your dreams. That might sound slightly depressing, but wrapped it all up in strings and flutes and guitars and delectable vocals and you have something absolutely wondrous.
The opening track on the album, ‘Introduction’ is an instrumental track with a very classical sound to it. It is a song that conjures up visions of nature and sunshine and warmth. It is a song that makes you realize that perhaps the music of Nick Drake isn’t what you thought. Perhaps it isn’t all doom and gloom. It provides a very good lead-in to ‘Hazey Jane II’ which is by far the most upbeat Nick Drake song ever. It is a pop song which you could very easily dance to and by rights should have been a very big hit. ‘One Of these Things First’ is a magical track. It beats me why this isn’t a Nick Drake classic, up there with Northern Sky, River Man, and Way To Blue. Somehow it has got lost along the way, and it doesn’t make sense, because this is a truly wonderful song and definitely one of the best vocal performances of Drake’s career. ‘Northern Sky’ is widely considered to be one of Drakes best songs, and it’s not hard to see why. It is a beautiful song with gorgeous lyrics, a haunting melody and gorgeously fragile vocals.
‘Bryter Layter’ is possibly Nick Drake’s most beautiful album. While it may lack the substance of ‘Four Leaves Left’ and the intensity of pink moon, it makes up for it in an abundance of unadulterated beauty. No-one could possibly find fault with this album; in fact, it is very difficult to find fault with anything that Nick Drake created.
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Pink Moon (1972)
Rating (Out of 10): 10
Tracklisting: Pink Moon / Place To Be / Road / Which Will / Horn / Things Behind The Sun / Know / Parasite / Ride / Harvest Breed / From The Morning
Nick Drake’s third and final album, ‘Pink Moon’ is the starkest and most intense of his career. Stripped of the strings, flutes and orchestration that gave so much beauty to his previous two albums, ‘Pink Moon’ is merely Drake on his own on vocals and guitar. It is Drake laid bare in all his austere beauty. Even though the strings and orchestration was one of the things that I love about the music of Nick Drake, the beauty of it’s absence lies in the fact that it brings the attention to Nick’s guitar which is definitely the focal point of ‘Pink Moon’. Throughout the album there is nothing but Drake’s beautiful voice and excellent guitar skills. There is nothing to distract from it, nothing to dilute it. It is celebrated in all his glory. Where ‘Bryter Layter’ was jazzy and upbeat, ‘Pink Moon’ is very folky, acoustic and mellow. And while ‘Pink Moon’ is an album of deep intensity, it is not totally inaccessible.The title track pink moon was used in a volkwagon beatle advert and drew attention to Drake earning him lots more fans. It seems strange to me that a Nick Drake song would be used to sell cars, but it worked to bring more attention to the wonderful music of Nick Drake, so it can’t have been that bad.
It’s impossible to listen to this album without pondering Drake’s demise. Less than two years after the recording of this album Nick Drake would overdose on sleeping tablets and be gone forever. During the recording of ‘Pink Moon’ drake had been very disappointed and depressed over the commercial failure of his previous two albums. It didn’t occur to him that to have recorded 3 albums by the age of 25 was quite an accomplishment and something that most people would never achieve in a lifetime. But he was a tortured soul and wanted fame and recognition that he never received.
Pink Moon is only 30 minutes long, yet is complete without needing addition, and the nature of it warrants the brevity. If it were any longer it would be too much to take.It seems ironic that most melancholic of all Drake’s albums is the one with the most positive sounding title. Whereas ‘Five Leaves Left’ indicated an obsession with the passing of time and death and ‘Bryter Later’ indicated a depressing present spent dreaming of a better future that would never arrive, ‘Pink Moon’ seems to present a more hopeful reality. But the lyrics tell a different story, tales of loss, and despair, and throughout the album Drake sings of hopelessness and desolation.
It is fitting that Drake’s final album is just him. It shows that he doesn’t really need anything else. It makes you realize that it’s not really the strings and flutes that make the first two albums so beautiful; the beauty lies with Drake himself. With ‘Pink Moon’, Nick Drake delivers yet another masterpiece, but you can’t help feeling that he’d already given up; there’s a certain feeling that he knew that this would be his last record. And you can’t help but wish that more people had bought his records in his own lifetime, that he’d experienced the appreciation he has received since his death. It seems amazing that someone so young was so talented and accomplished so much. It makes you wonder what he would achieved if was still alive today. Would he now be recording his 30th studio album, and if so, what would it be like? Well, if his first three are anything to go by, it would be utter perfection.
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