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Bryter Layter is Nick Drake's second work after the disappointment of the previous album Five Leaves Left, which did not find the success it deserved.
The album contains its genesis and its story already in the title, which takes up a phrase often used by weather forecast speakers: "brighter later", which means "clearing later" (onomatopoeically rendered in Cockney dialect: precisely Bryter Layter). With this album, in fact, Nick wanted to somehow seek an existential clearing that had been missing for some time, brighten his "northern sky" too often laden with clouds, fears, anxieties, to push back his demons, perhaps coinciding all this with the approval and applause of the people who never (at least while he was alive) understood how great his genius was.
For this album, which was supposed to be the one of consecration, Nick wanted the very best, and not by chance did he work with John Cale on the sumptuous arrangements; Cale was already with Velvet Underground and a regular at Andy Warhol's Factory, and he was literally struck by the figure of the young man from Tanworth-in-Arden.
The result was actually something that borders on absolute perfection... listening to it gives you almost the sensation of entering a parallel world, something detached, disconnected from earthly reality. It's like being suspended in air, almost floating, perpetually moving between Life and awareness, and Death (which will prevail in Pink Moon) and the most complete incomprehension.
The album reaches its highest points with the bittersweet and frivolous "Hazey Jane I", the jazzy "At the Chime Of a City Clock" born from his London stay, but also the melancholic "One of These Things First", where he lists the things he could have been, but will never be... and the surprising and intimate "Poor Boy" and "Northern Sky", a beautiful love song, also centered on the complete acceptance of the other - "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 'till I'm dead".
In addition to the songs, instrumental pieces, magnificently arranged and intertwined, open, close, and support one of the most beautiful albums of all time.
In Bryter Layter, folk-blues - cultured jazz-pop - classical arrangements (Nick Drake loved Bach and just consider Cale's classical training) are mixed and combined perfectly... resulting in an album not to be missed by anyone who appreciates good music and for those who do not yet know Nick Drake.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
05 Hazey Jane I (04:31)
Do you curse where you come from,
Do you swear in the night
Will it mean much to you
If I treat you right.
Do you like what you're doing,
Would you do it some more
Or will you stop once and wonder
What you're doing it for.
Hey slow Jane, make sense
Slow, slow, Jane, cross the fence.
Do you feel like a remnant
Of something that's past
Do you find things are moving
Just a little too fast.
Do you hope to find new ways
Of quenching your thirst,
Do you hope to find new ways
Of doing better than your worst.
Hey slow Jane, let me prove
Slow, slow Jane, we're on the move.
Do it for you,
Sure that you would do the same for me one day.
So try to be true,
Even if it's only in your hazey way.
Can you tell if you're moving
With no mirror to see,
If you're just riding a new man
Looks a little like me.
Is it all so confusing,
Is it hard to believe
When the winter is coming
Can you sign up and leave.
Hey slow Jane, live your lie
Slow, slow jane, fly on by.
07 Fly (03:00)
Please give me a second grace
Please give me a second face
I've fallen far down
The first time around
Now I just sit on the ground in your way
Now if it's time for recompense for what's done
Come, come sit down on the fence in the sun
And the clouds will roll by
And we'll never deny
It's really too hard for to fly.
Please tell me your second name
Please play me your second game
I've fallen so far
For the people you are
I just need your star for a day
So come, come ride in my street-car by the bay
For now I must know how fine you are in your way
And the sea sure as I
But she won’t need to cry
For it's really too hard for to fly.
08 Poor Boy (06:09)
Nick Drake - Poor boy
Never sing for my supper
I never help my neighbour
Never do what is proper
For my share of labour.
I`m a poor boy
And I`m a rover
Count your coins and
Throw them over my shoulder
I may grow older
Nobody knows
How cold it grows
And nobody sees
How shaky my knees
Nobody cares
How steep my stairs
And nobody smiles
If I cross their stiles.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health.
You may say every day
Where will he stay tonight.
Never know what I came for
Seems that I`ve forgotten
Never ask what I came for
Or how I was begotten.
I`m a poor boy
And I`m a ranger
Things I say
May seem stranger than Sunday
Changing to Monday.
Nobody knows
How cold it flows
And nobody feels
The worn down heels
Nobody`s eyes
Make the skies
Nobody spreads
Their aching heads.
Oh poor boy
So worried for his life
Oh poor boy
So keen to take a wife.
He`s a mess but he`ll say yes
If you just dress in white.
Nobody knows
How cold it blows
And nobody sees
How shaky my knees
Nobody cares
How steep my stairs
And nobody smiles
If you cross their stiles.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health.
You may say every day
Where will he stay tonight.
Oh poor boy
So worried for his life
Oh poor boy
So keen to take a wife.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health
Oh poor boy.
09 Northern Sky (03:47)
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
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
I’ve been a long time that I’m waiting
Been a long time that I’m blown
I’ve been a long time that I’ve wandered
Through the people I have known
Oh, if you would and you could
Straighten my new mind’s eye
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
Oh, if you would and you could
Come blow your horn on high
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
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
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Other reviews
By Dune Buggy
"You feel like leftover of something that’s gone, immersed in the instrumental sunset of the title-track."
"It’s hard to stay angry when there’s so much beauty in the world."
By andy66
What some consider a virtue, to me is the real great flaw of Nick Drake: the voice.
On a cheerful day, I would never dream of putting on this Bryter Layter.
By maxgit
I was blown away by this record.
"Bryter Layter" is a very beautiful record. Perfect. The best I have ever listened to.
By luludia
This is one of those rare cases where the whole exceeds the sum of its parts.
"Northern Sky" is a song full of hopes, but which does not neglect the subtle cracks, the too-tight shoes of the dream traveler.
By zaireeka
Bryter Layter represents an oasis, an interlude, a hope of happiness in Nick Drake’s world.
I see, I saw, in Nick Drake’s voice in that section, the voice of a mountain stream, and in the saxophone that accompanies it, a butterfly that follows it, painting light paths in the air.
