REVIEWS:
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(reviewed by Oleg Sobolev)
HIGH POINTS: River Man, Man In A Shed, Saturday Sun, Time Has Told Me, Way To Blue, The Thoughts Of Mary Jane. LOW POINTS: Cello Song.
Just yesterday, listening to this album, I finally figured out what's so strange with it. I happen to love almost every song on here separately, but I never got to get this album as the whole. Listening to forty minutes of Nick Drake telling you about things that surround him in his awkward poetry, based entirely on the samey folk melodies and packed with orchestral arrangements to extreme is not as great as some Nick fans say it is. By the end, I'm simply willing to turn it off, to change the record and listen to something more upbeat and energetic you know. However, considering that Nick wasn't for energy at the first place and definitely wasn't made for happy upbeat songs (as Bryter Layter perfectly proves), it's pretty much a good album. It goes all the way without any obvious hooks, completely driven by atmosphere and emotions and repeats itself forever. In short, it's like the less epic and less brilliant version of Van Morrison's genius Astral Weeks. And if that album actually has enough power to send you into a great, atmospheric and gorgeous trip, Five Leaves Left is more like a record that simply focuses way too much on the emotional core of the author and ends up being really boring.
That said, there are enough true gems on here. The opening "Time Has Told Me", for instance", is a perfect folk song that flows into some gentle jazz with careful and tasty electric guitar licks and all stuff like that. "River Man" follows, and, I admit, that one really gets it all to me. A moody folk guitar is as autumnal and hopeless as the album's title, Nick's singing is romantic and majestic, and the strings work twice as good as they work on here: Oh, strings. Did I mention to you that I prefer Pink Moon to the man's first two albums partly because it has zero strings? A big FAT zero of strings there. As much as I should respect Robert Kirby, his orchestration is sometimes way too dramatic or just goes over-the-top in other songs, completely overshadowing their beauty. Of course, sometimes it STILL works, like in "Way To Blue", which is only Nick and strings behind them. Still, Nick's voice warms any heart of any person in this world and the orchestration is achingly beautiful.
"Three Hours" is the longest Nick song, clocking over the friggin' six minutes and, honestly, I could live without it. The near-tribal atmosphere sounds way out-of-place on the folky singer-songwriter album. Of course, it is kind of saved by another marvelous vocal performance and a little acoustic passage in the middle that contains one of the best acoustic guitar solos I've ever heard. "Day Is Done" is the closest to the real folk song Nick had come on here, but it still has somewhat uninteresting strings. However, the song still rules, because in the very core it sounds like Pink Moon, and everything that is connected (in any way) with that album just must rule. That's the fact.
"Cello Song" is probably my least favourite Nick song. It takes that guitar-bass-gongs thing from "Three Hours" and makes it even more annoying, plus it indeed has an ugly cello there and I, honestly, haven't got any idea how on earth there could be such as unfinished, on-the-spot sound as "Cello Song" has. "The Thoughts Of Mary Jane" is, on the other hand, a well-thought, beautiful compositions that captivates on its' sunny mood (and Nick sounds happy as fuck on here, but it's still a depressing song lyrically: Very cute) and gorgeous flute line. "Man In A Shed" is one of my personal favourites here, simply because it sounds awesome. It is way more optimistic than anything Nick Drake had ever recorded and yet it sounds like a gentle and amusing song. It rules, it simply rules, my friends.
Oh, and now here's "Fruit Tree". You probably know about the song's bleak prophecy in it's lyrical message (Nick predicted his own future life in the lines of the song, literally), and I guess that's why it is loved so much by fans and critics. I admit that its' moody and airy atmosphere combined with Nick's singing some really dark lyrics makes it sounds extremely depressed, but I always get a feeling that it lasts for ever, and that's why I don't really like it. It's still alright, though. "Saturday Sun" ends the album on a heavenly note, with a very lovely jazzy piano thing. It's like a superb music for an early Saturday morning in some countryside, ideal to listening to while watching the sun rising up. What an atmosphere. Ah, that's interesting: at the beginning, I wanted to put down this album a bit, but ended up liking it. Well, as I said before, I think that the separate songs are really good, but, unfortunately, Five Leaves Left doesn't work as much as the album - more like a collection of songs that you can put on from time to time.
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(reviewed by Oleg Sobolev)
HIGH POINTS: Northern Sky, One Of These Things, At The Crime Of A City Clock, Hazey Jane II, Fly, Hazey Jane I, Poor Boy. LOW POINTS: None.
Bryter Layter is easily Nick's most accessible album. The long orchestrated folk epic tales of Five Leaves Left are gone, replaced by a collection of pretty pop-folk songs, usually with some jazz twist here and there, yet there's no such depressive acoustic laments as those on Pink Moon. And it's one of these cases when " more accessible" means "good". This album is awesome, because it manages to marry all of Nick's natural humbleness and emotional honesty with some perfect hooks. I also should notice that Kirby's orchestrations are now much better, less dramatic and much more relaxing and Joe Boyd's production is absolutely incredible.
Everybody seems to dislike three instrumentals on here ("Introduction", the title track and "Sunday"), pointing out that, while they are nice, they add nothing to the album itself. Well, it's really hard to disagree here, and I'm not a big fan of these instrumentals either. Ok, at least, "Introduction" is short and is a nice, well, introduction, to the whole thing, but two others are, well, long, repetitive and unnecessary, even if they both are flute-led, which is the greatest instrument in the history of mankind, except for Mellotron, Termenvox, cymbals, Moog synthesizer, violin, cello, trumpet and probably half of dozen other instruments I've forgotten about). And "Sunday" closes the album in the very anti-climatic way, especially considering the song that goes before it ("Northern Sky") could be so much better closer for this baby.
But other seven songs? Whoa, here goes the fun. After the mentioned introduction, "Hazey Jane 2" opens it all with AN OPTIMISTIC MOOD. On a Nick Drake album. Yay. It's a great song by itself, with catchy rhythm, some of the finest arrangement this side of Russia and a tasty little electric guitar licks from that Fairport Convention guy. The orchestration fucking rules as well. "At The Crime Of A City Clock" is even better - if Bob Dylan was British, he could write something like this one day. The song's moody atmosphere is somewhat scary (a bit), and the song's arrangement builds up and builds up to the ecstatic saxophone part with that sax guy doing some really good solos at the background, remarkable enough to be relaxing and not to overshadow Nick at the same time. For some strange reason, my mom hates this song, claiming it's boring, but mom, c'mon, not every day you hear a perfect folk song.
"One Of These Things" adopts a little semi-jazz groove to a little folk strumming and it's GREAT. It's AMAZING. It's an A+ song that is absolutely ORGASMIC. I can continue forever and forever (meaning - until George Starostin one day gives a 15 to Pet Sounds), but it won't change the song's perfectness. And you can't argue it has a hell of a vocal melody, even if lyrics are kind of stupid. "Hazey Jane 1" has totally no relation to "Hazey Jane 2" - it's quiet and humble instead of bombastic and overblown (for Nick Drake) second part. And it rules once again, because you can't beat the rhythm section work on here. You simply can't.
"Fly" isn't as gorgeous as "Waterloo Sunset", bet then again, what is? It's still a mighty song, though, with harpsichord and acoustic guitar creating a beautiful atmosphere that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah ya know the rest without me. This song RULES - why bother? Which brings me to the subject - why bother with the presidential election in Russia right now? Especially when there aren't any real opponents to Vladimir Putin. Let' s give him a lifelong presidency - people here will vote for that guy without ANY clear positions on ANY subjects if only he looks pretty and has army of ugly asslickers behind him. Damn, Russia is SO totally fucked up country that we have a totally fucked up president: Very many people seem to dislike "Poor Boy", and I also used to hate it, but now I dig it enough to highlight it. Yeah, I understand that a women choir and a cheesy saxophone tone may put off anybody out there, but once you overcome these two factors, you'd get an incredibly groovy song and just a catchy song. The piano solo in the end leaves me breathless and when Nick sings, "Nobody knows how cold it grows:", I've got goosebumps all over.
And, now, "Northern Sky", the frigging pinnacle of Nick's career. The song so gorgeous and so good that I would kill for it. On this particular track, the production sounds like: you know, like you're in the center of the Universe, listening to some faraway pop orchestra playing this song with Nick singing it from really high above. I suppose that John Cale's celeste helps to create such atmosphere like this, because it sounds spacey. The whole song sounds spacey! This is what folk will sound like in the year 2347, I suppose. The lyrics sum all humbleness about Nick, the vocal melody is hypnotizing: It's the kind of song that is useless to talk about - it makes the whole impression of what it actually is only when you'll finally listen to it. It's one of the best songs of all time, and if you want to argue, you're an idiot. If you dislike Bryter Layter, you're an even bigger idiot.
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(reviewed by Oleg Sobolev)
HIGH POINTS: Parasite, Things Behind The Sun, Know, Pink Moon, Which Will, Horn, Road, Place To Be, From The Morning. LOW POINTS: None.
Pink Moon is the album Nick Drake was born to make one day. Speaking about songwriting, it’s not his best album ever, but it still perfectly defines what he all was about. He was a true bard, and as a true bard, everything that he ever needed was just his acoustic guitar and a song to sing. No drums, no orchestration, no electricity – in the time of the past, a folk singer couldn’t even imagine all these things, yet alone dream of having them on his hands. So, in this way, Pink Moon depicts a formula of your British folkcraft perfectly, even a little more than you can think about.
But, still, Nick wasn’t a bard in a true sense of word. A bard, as I get it, just sat there in a various banquets, singing drinking songs that usually were screamed out by a crowd of dirty drunk men. Yeah, I see that it’s a part of image, but still only a part of it anyway. Nick didn’t sing drinking songs – his songs are hopeless, humble and deep. They rely on the simplest human emotions, and they succeed in that. While his lyrics, his poetry is almost abstract, Nick still managed to get it to you, to carry his message to the end. In the title track, as he sings “I saw it written and I saw it said/ Pink moon is on its’ way/ None of you stand so tall/ Pink moon is gonna get ye all/ It’s a pink moon/ Yeah a pink moon”, you don’t know what it all actually means, but the way the man sings it, complete with a nude instrumentation, makes a clear sense. Later in the song, the piano appears, and these striking, soft chords cut the listener like a thousand knives, making atmosphere colder and colder, changing everything about “Pink Moon” in some seconds.
Also, I’m pretty sure that you can’t find a bard playing a guitar like Nick Drake did. Probably the greatest example of how he was great in his guitar skills is “Road”. The way Nick plays all these chords, touches strings, quietly flows above them, to be clear, always fascinate me every time I listen to this song. The legend says he never tuned his guitar in the ordinary way, always used some completely weird, out there tunings, and that may be true. Oh, and if you don’t know it already, the guitar is the only instrument on record (piano bit in the title track is the only exception, however), and sometimes Nick doesn’t even need the voice to create magic around you – “Horn” is just one minute of his guitar, airy and totally genius. A short interlude of some things, some say an ambient track – it is one of the most unique mood expressions I’ve ever experienced. There are also many moments on the album where Nick has guitar to speak for anything else – the opening chord progression of “Parasite”, a middle part of “Things Behind The Sun” (I love how Nick’s vocal suddenly disappears and leaves us with the guitar melody only), and many others. This may be one of the best guitar albums I’ve ever heard, if not the very best one.
And, of course, no bard ever played the blues. “Know” is a pure blues song – with a familiar blues progression and “ooooh-ooooh” vocals. And it’s one awesome song. The blues riff is powerful and sounds really old and sick, matching the atmosphere of the record. In the middle, the vocals change from the wordless chant to just four lines that leave me stunned all the time: “Know that I love you/ Know I don’t care/ Know that I see you/ Know I’m not there”. (Interesting thing, “Ride” has a vice versa message coming from the same mouth: “I know you, I care too”) How much is that for the universal lack of love? The mood is hopeless, leaving no way out. And it becomes even more hopeless in the end, when Nick’s voice sounds like it falls from Everest or something. The decision to place a blues song in the middle of the folk album just couldn’t work, but “Know” fits perfectly – it’s a song that pretty much defines all of Pink Moon mood, while not defying it musically.
Even more mind scratching is “Which Will”, a song that manages to sound completely weird. The music and the arrangement are wonderfully upbeat, but the lyrics, disguised as the love song of some kind, depict self-searching and the crisis of ego: “Which will you hope for? Which can it be? Which will you take now if you won’t take me?” It’s bitter. The vocal melody is also almost painfully simple, something that a random three-year old can write, but it is a genius simplicity. The soul-searching continues in “Place To Be”, a story of getting old, completely alone. It also shows Nick’s disillusionment in life: “And I was green, greener than the hills/ Where the flowers grew and sun shone still/ Now I’m darker than the deepest sea/ Just hand me down, give me place to be”. All this is sung in the moodiest, oldest voice possible and accompanied by a dark, crawling guitar. It is, of course, beautiful. How can’t it be?
I already mentioned how spectacular “Ride” is for its’ noticeable guitar playing, but that’s not even what the song is about, anyway. It’s about another brilliant vocal performance and another brilliant vocal melody. Fast whispering is cold as it can get. “I can take the road that’ll see me through” – you don’t what it means, but the message is still resonant and clear for anyone. “Ride” also has a message that is just so universally mysterious that it’s impossible to relate to a single subject in this world: “But hear me calling, won’t you give me a free ride?”
The definite highlights on here are “Parasite” and “Things Behind The Sun” – two epics and two song Nick began working on as early as 1969. The latter is placed near the middle of the album, and it’s probably what Nick thought as the album’s centerpiece. The lyrics, once again, don’t mean a thing (“Take a time and you’ll be fine and say a prayer for people there who live on the floor), the mood does. The vocal melody is wistful and effective, the acoustic rhythm is fast and furious, and the singing is beautifully hopeless. The mentioned guitar break breaks in suddenly, just like a million rays of sun breaking through the eternal darkness, and yet it still makes the song sound even more pessimistic. When Nick sings, “Who’ll hear what I say”, you remember all the moments when you were alone, and it’s magical. The seven closing lines, which Nick sings slower and quieter than anything else are wonderful beyond words and a great way for a song’s conclusion: “Say what you’ll say/ About the farmers and the farms/ And the things behind the sun/ About the people round your head/ Who say everything’s been said/ And the movement in your brain/ Sends you out into the rain”.
“Parasite” is a song that will get to you once you’ll hear it, an instantly likeable song, if you will. But then, there’s something more in it than just a pleasant tune – the song is a work of genius, a true work of timeless art, that’s it. As the airy guitar opens the song in a completely stunning way, and when Nick’s voice adds, you know it’s one of the most perfect songs you’ve ever heard. It’s almost painfully simple – that guitar line changes only a bit, and that’s only when Nick sings a two-line chorus, and the vocal melody is also very simple, although damn effective and memorable. However, I’m guilty of liking “Parasite” not only because of the music itself, but more because of the vocal delivery and lyrics. “Lifting the mask from a local clown/ Feeling down like him/ Seeing the light in the station bar/ Traveling far in sin/ Sailing downstairs to the northern line/ Watching the shine of the shoes/ And hearing the trial of people there/ Who’s to care if they lose?/ Take a look you may see me on the ground/ For I am the parasite of this town”. When the impossibly sad and quiet voice sings lines like these in my ears, my hearts always breaks completely.
“Harvest Breed” is probably the most depressing Nick Drake song you can hear. It’s short, it doesn’t mean anything in particular, but it’s dark, dark, dark. “Falling fast and falling free, this could be the end” – it is a single quote from this song, and it depicts what it really is pretty well. However, the last song, “From The Morning”, is absolutely, breathtakingly optimistic. A glorious melody that could be turned by some arena rock band into some ultimate power ballad, a light-hearted, opened guitar playing and “The day once dawned and it was beautiful” declaration – it’s what the song is. Nick Drake was a one strange guy – for 26 minutes straight he painted pictures of everything-gone-wrong through his lyrical charades, and now he’s singing a hopeful, totally optimistic song. And it just can’t be a false optimism, because, you see, Nick was honest. And he looked into the future with optimism. Unfortunately, his own future would end two years after the release of Pink Moon, in 1974, when he would die in his parents’ home. Was it suicide or not, we don’t know now and we probably won’t know anyway. Nick Drake has gone forever, with all his doubts, fears, secrets, imaginary friends like Hazey Jane, feelings, but, before his death, he wrote a bunch of songs that picture him perfectly honest and well. And that’s the greatest compliment I can do to a songwriter.
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