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Rating: Another review of an anthology, and another review of a great artist.
Nick Drake is one of the greatest songwriters in the history of rock. During his short life, and very short career, he did not achieve any success in terms of audience and sales. Rediscovered thanks to a collection published at the end of the '70s, with only three albums he has had an extraordinary influence on artists from the '80s and '90s.
With a typically English accent, whose shyness over the years turned into loneliness and despair, Nick Drake is the songwriter who most of all managed to convey his own melancholy and anguish. But he was also a great composer, an impeccable guitarist, a meticulous arranger, and most importantly, an incomparable poet. The lyrics of his songs possess a simple language, never banal rhymes, genius metaphors. And, above all, they were sung by Drake himself. His performance was always detached, without unnecessary virtuosity. But, at the same time or perhaps because of this, it perfectly evoked the artist's state of mind, as melancholic and dreamy in the first two albums as depressive and desperate in the last.
The anthology is happily titled "Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake". Like any collection, it cannot have the same charm as the original albums, but it remains an excellent "introduction" to the artist, with almost all of his best compositions. The listening experience is somewhat hindered by the track list mix. Mixing the tracks from different albums loses one of the main characteristics of Drake's work: harmony.
From the first album, "Five Leaves Left", the romantic "'Cello Song", the dramatic "Way to Blue" and "River Man", the poetic "Time Has Told Me" and the melancholic and visionary "Fruit Tree", in which Drake foreshadows his own destiny are included:
"Fame is but a fruit tree
So very unsound.
It can never flourish
Till its stalk is in the ground.
So men of fame
Can never find a way
Till time has flown
Far from their dying day"
The arrangement of the songs is romantic and almost naively naive. Strings are almost always in the foreground, giving the lyrics a profound drama. At the time of publication, Drake was only 21 years old.
From the second album, perhaps his masterpiece in terms of complexity of execution and arrangement, the jazzy "Hazey Jane I" and "Poor Boy", the romantic "One of These Things First" and "Northern Sky" and finally the rhythmic "Hazey Jane II" are included.
These are very different tracks in terms of rhythm and melody, ranging from jazz to pop, but they maintain a strong homogeneity thanks to a superb arrangement, as unusual as it is extraordinarily delicate.
In the track "Northern Sky", Drake reaches the peak of his poetry. It is impossible to quote just a few verses here, I invite you to download the full lyrics.
From the third album, "Pink Moon" of 1972, the enigmatic "Pink Moon", the desolate "Which Will", the very sad "Things Behind The Sun" and finally the naive "From The Morning" are included.
By many considered his masterpiece, the album is a solemn declaration of death, nihilism, and incommunicability. The melancholy and fears magnificently set to music in the previous albums now give way to anguish, deepest depression, and perhaps madness.
Nick Drake died in 1974 due to an overdose of sleeping pills, possibly a suicide. Some songs recorded after "Pink Moon" were released posthumously on the album titled "Time Of No Reply". In this anthology, the dramatic title track and the dark "Black Eyed Dog" are included.
In conclusion, the anthology represents an excellent shortcut to discover the extraordinary talent of Nick Drake. I don't feel like giving it the highest rating due to the absence of some particularly significant tracks: the very delicate and almost carefree "The Thoughts of Mary Jane" from the first album, the almost jazz "At The Chime Of The City Clock" and the sincere confession of "Fly" from the second, the sad "Place to Be", and finally the sweet "Mayfair" from the posthumous "Time of No Reply".
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