Nick Drake

[bennie2]

I haven't listened to this man in a long time. His music became closely related in my head to someone I used to know and listening to his albums was too much like a confrontation with memories.

But I've revisited his three records over the weekend. I'm currently listening to the sparse, fragile and beautiful Pink Moon, his last record. From what I know of Drake, this album is the most "drake" of all. The adjectives I used to describe pink moon up there could just as easily be used to describe drake. An innocent in a sea of poisonous and cutting reeds. Some of the folk finger picking pieces on this record are sublime, angelic and, in an odd way, uplifting. I guess it isn't so odd. I can't think of a more rousing and happy bringing music as the blues. The blues is, when done properly, a music about slavery, heartbreak, death, oppression, hatred, and all the other miseries of life made lyrical. So, I suppose a musician's record while deeply depressed and withdrawn, suffering from crippling psychosis, can be uplifting to anyone who has experienced such lows. It's good to know you're not alone; that someone else has been there too.

Bryter Layter was the middle baby. It's a pretty record. Uplifting. It would be the soundtrack to the film I'd write if I could ever find a way to pin these images down. Vast sweeping cinematography but limited to an indie budget, such is the unwritten picture (movie) in my head. And that's Bryter Layter. Successfully lo-fi whilst being majestically ethereal. This record features the song "one of these things first" which seems to me to be about someone realising their own existence. I could be anything I want to be, but how? But the middle verse of the song is more about offering friendship. I could be there for you. "Could be" suggesting that he wasn't or isn't. Now I'm wondering if that was his fault or hers. I assume it was a "her".

My favourite of the three records is the debut recording, Five Leaves Left. The name comes from a message that was (still is?) written on a brand of cigarette papers here. The 5th skin from the bottom would inform you that there are only five left. Time to get more. Everything is running out. Resources are low. Time is running out. It’s all reaching an end. And this was just his debut. His voice, particularly on this record, is perfect. Soft as a child's but deep as a man's in both senses of the word "deep". The melodies are luxurious. This is the kind of music you want to share with people. Buy a friend Five Leaves Left as a gift and ask them to sit down with it, alone, preferably with headphones and a dark room and listen. Listen properly. The whole world is in this record. The bit that matters anyway. The climbing orchestral beauty of air.

I've left this guy out of my life for over a year (since last we listened together) and I've missed him. I'll put all three records on my newly purchased MP3 player (not an iPod, a creative zen) and they're never coming off.

[bohonato]

I only know the song 'Fly' from Bryter Layter (um, yes Royal Tenenbaums, let's not talk about it), but I love it to death. Fragile and beautiful, those words describe it perfectly. I really want to hear more of his stuff, but there's so much music out there. Thanks for posting this.