Artist: Nick Drake
Album: Five Leaves Left
Year: 1969
Nick Drake is an artist who didn't leave behind much music, but literally everything he did was highly revered and has steadily increased in repute since his untimely death in 1974.
Five Leaves Left was the debut album for this Scottish folk singer, and it shows him in remarkable command as a songwriter. Songs like "River Man," "Day Is Done," and "Fruit Tree" are little masterpieces. I've never really been all that crazy about Drake as a singer, which is somewhat surprising. I'm a fan of lots of artists who are compared with Drake, singers like Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian and Elliott Smith, both of whom shared the same kind of breathy, wispy (some might say fey) vocal stylings. Drake's voice for me is basically like if you took Van Morrison and fed him a shitload of Xanax. And I'm not really crazy about Morrison.
These songs are really superb though. The chamber accompaniment really suits the album well, and Drake's voice, even though I don't love it, does have a haunting quality that fits the material. I feel like Drake is an artist who people absolutely love if they dig his voice (like Van Morrison), but if not, they will simply admire him. I fall into the latter camp, but feel that Drake is an artist everyone should definitely hear to see if he's their cup of tea.
Rating: Worth a listen
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