Nick Drake was possessed of a rare talent; a talent which wasn't fully recognised until after his untimely death in 1974, at the age of 26. His gift for song-writing and his intensely personal studio performances, have led to the few albums he recorded in his lifetime being cited as some of the most influential of the last three decades by musicians ranging from John Cale to Kate Bush (not to mention Michael Stipe ...damn, I mentioned him...).
Interest in his life and his work is still growing, and rumour has it that a film biopic is lurking just around the corner. But the greatest memorial to a deeply misunderstood individual remains his music - both the three original albums, and the additional material which has surfaced over the years since his death.
Here we have a quick look at the albums - and the 'introductory' compilation - which have recently been re-released to satisfy the recent increase in demand.
Recorded in 1968, Drake's debut album is - like all of his work - a highly personal experience.
At the same time intimate and remote, his soft warm vocals seem to glide over the sound of his
guitar. Even the string arrangements on songs such as 'Way To Blue' and 'The Thoughts Of
Mary Jane' 
seem to actually be a part of Drake's consciousness, as though we're listening to
the songs at the very moment that they began to form within his head.
Some of the songs are left bare and simple, such as 'Man In A Shed' - which just has a piano and bass to flesh out the sound of Drake's acoustic guitar. The best moment on the album, is the moving 'Fruit Tree' - one of Drake's finest songs - which almost spookily prophesies it's creator's future ("Fame is but a fruit tree/So very unsound/It can never flourish /'Til its stalk is in the ground/So men of fame/Can never find a way/'Til time has flown/Far from their dying day...").
One of the popular misconceptions about Drake's music is that - because the man himself suffered from manic depression (he spent most of his adult life running from the black cloud of despair which followed him everywhere), and because his songs deal with his misery and his unrealised loves - his music itself is depressing, which it most certainly is not. What it is is powerful and emotive, and above all comforting. Listening to Five Leaves Left will not make you feel suicidal. It will make you feel mellow (the album's title will be familiar to anyone who knows their skins...), and it will make you feel reflective and contemplative.
Indeed his second album may even make you feel cheerful. Drake and producer Joe Boyd pulled out all the stops for this recording - it was to be the singer's breakthrough album (Five Leaves Left had received great reviews, but sold very poorly). The songs were lushly orchestrated, and the whole album was built around three instrumental pieces of which Drake was most proud ('Introduction', 'Bryter Layter' and 'Sunday'). The track 'Poor Boy' even finds Drake in a strangely upbeat self-mocking mood ("Oh poor boy/So sorry for himself/Oh poor boy/So worried for his health"). And the likes of 'Hazey Jane I' and 'Hazey Jane II' are anything but downbeat in tempo.
'Northern Sky' is one of Drake's best known songs, probably because it is his most immediately beautiful composition - it is also quite possibly the purest love song ever written, at once filled with longing, fulfilment and helplessness.
"I never felt magic crazy as this/I never saw moons, knew the meaning of the seas/I never held emotion in the palm of my hand/Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree/But now you're here/Brighten my northern sky...".
Everybody involved with album expected it to be a huge success - and indeed, it is one of the most complete albums ever recorded (and completely eclipses anything else recorded at that time). When it failed to make any kind of impact Drake was understandably devastated.
It was a couple of years before Drake again felt the desire to record. In between he spent a little time in Spain, but mostly stayed at his parent's home in the small Midlands village of Tanworth-In-Arden. He recorded his third album, Pink Moon, quickly (indeed, the producer was under the impression that Drake was just recording demo versions of the songs - and not the final tracks themselves). Pink Moon is Nick Drake at his rawest, for most of the time, just a voice and a guitar. The songs are wracked with frailty, and as such probably reflect the mood of the man far more honestly than either Five Leaves Left or Bryter Layter.
Songs such as 'Road' and 'Which Will' find Drake questioning his very existence,
looking for a 
meaning in the world and the people around him -
hoping to strengthen his will to
carry on. By the time he reaches the final track, 'From The Morning', it almost seems as though
he's found the strength. The song is emotively one of his most optimistic - which makes it all
the more moving, being the final track on what was essentially his final album.
What Pink Moon lacks - in the form of the finely-crafted string arrangements of the first album, and the light jazz-sensibilities of the second - it more than makes up for with its honesty and clarity.
Nick Drake died at his parent's home in 1974, from an overdose of prescribed anti-depressants. He left no note, so it's likely that his death was accidental. (Indeed on more than one occasion he had been heard to admit that he didn't have the courage to commit suicide). He left behind him three finished albums, and a host of other material recorded both in the studio and on a four-track at home.
This posthumous album is a collection of some of this material, and features the four tracks from the famous last session (Drake had just begun work on demos for a fourth album at the time of his death). The quality of the songs present here - some demo versions, some simply discarded or forgotten - shows just how great a loss his death was, and hints at how much more he had to offer the world. Although we will never truly know to what he was aspiring. Songs such as 'Time Of No Reply' and 'I Was Made To Love Magic' rank as some of the most poetic and evocative of all time. While demo versions of the likes of 'Thoughts Of Mary Jane' show that Drake wasn't averse to experimenting with his compositions until he found the perfect presentation.
This album spans Drake's recording career - from the rough four-track demos he made which attracted the attentions of Joe Boyd and got him his record deal with WitchSeason, to the aforementioned final sessions. A brief career, of some six or seven years, but one which has left a lasting impression on the musical world - an impression which has continued to grow over the years. A tree which has bore more fruit then even Drake could have dreamed for.
I didn't discover the music of Nick Drake until quite recently, and when I did it was thanks to this Island Records compilation. The perfect place to begin for anyone interested - it features selections from the four albums, and is available for under a tenner from just about any record store. Buy it, and I assure you, there'll be at least one or two tracks which you will never be able to live without again.
This is a boxed set comprising the albums - Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, Pink Moon and Time Of No Reply - plus the complete lyrics and an indispensable biography. (And it's a little cheaper than buying all four albums separately).
