Nick Drake
Bryter Layter

THE REVIEW

I don't know if anyone has done it before me, but I've always thought, ever since I discovered Nick Drake, that his first three records, in fact his only ones while alive, represented days of the week.

Just consider how his first album ends with the rising sun of Saturday ("Saturday Sun") and his second ends with the beginning of Sunday ("Sunday").

Unfortunately, there is no day following the third, as we all know.

In short, if "Five Leaves Left" is a Friday, "Pink Moon" a Sunday, "Bryter Layter" would represent Saturday.

The other thing I've often thought is that perhaps, besides the Myth of Sisyphus on the bedside table, Nick Drake kept the poems of Giacomo Leopardi locked in the drawer (and this is not a joke).

The evening of the festivity day of "Pink Moon" could not have been preceded by anything other than the village Saturday of "Bryter Layter".

Musically speaking, but partly also in the lyrics, his second album indeed represents an oasis, an interlude, a hope of happiness in Nick Drake's world (and the presence of three instrumentals confirms it for me).

It's no coincidence that, in my opinion, much more than his other albums, it inspired many pop groups for songs that are far from melancholic, or at least with a certain kind of serene melancholy, full of hope.

Similarities between "Hazey Jane II" and many things by Belle & Sebastian come to mind.

The introduction of "Northern Sky" and that of REM's "Find the river".

Even "Fly" which had its notes (besides the arrangement) stolen by Manuel Agnelli in "Come vorrei".

As if all these authors and groups tried to grasp the essence of these Nick Drake songs, the (wonderful) arrangements by his friend Robert Kirby, to make them their own, because for once with the melancholy that occasionally grips everyone, one might be able to live with it, talk about it, play it serenely, overcome it, finally managing to live better days.

Something Nick Drake couldn't do, lost without hope, as he ended in the evening of a sunless Sunday, very different from the one he had dreamed of just a day before.

Postscript of 02/01/2020:

I realized shortly after publishing it that there are some things wrong with this review of mine, the first of which being too "coldly analytical" towards the work, not giving room to the description of the impressions his music can evoke upon listening, in short, generally taking too much for granted that everyone knows Nick Drake (the many reviews published on the site influenced me). After all, I had an idea about him and his music, his influence, and I wanted to share it with someone.

This morning, I listened again to Bryter Layter, from start to finish, and focused at the end on a song not mentioned so far, "At the chime of the city clock". On Nick Drake's voice in this song, on the section where his voice is accompanied by a saxophone.

What are, what were my impressions?

Well, I see, I saw, in Nick Drake's voice in that section, the voice of a mountain stream (I know, we're in the city, but it doesn't matter), and in the saxophone that accompanies it, a butterfly that follows it, painting light paths in the air, down towards the sea.

In short, a whole world, sweet and serene for once, nothing more, nothing less.