6 March 2021

Artist: NICK DRAKE (UK)
Full name: Nicholas Rodney Drake.
19 June 1948 – 24 November 1974 (only 26)

Album: BRYTER LAYTER
Released: 6 March 1971 – 50 years ago today
Collaborators: Members of Fairport Convention,
John Cale, and Beach Boys‘ musicians Mike Kowalski,
Ed Carter and Paul Harri.

Nick Drake soon after the release: “I had something
in mind when I wrote the songs, knowing that they weren’t
just for me. The album took a long time to do, in fact, we
started it almost a year ago. But I’m not altogether clear
about this album – I haven’t got to terms with the whole
presentation.”

Rolling Stone: “Nick Drake may be the most ethereal recording artist I’ve ever heard. His fleeting career — the moody, mysterious music, the remote relationship with his record company — seemed calculated to distance him from reality. Yet his hushed songs touch a rare tranquillity that approaches poetry, and when he died in 1974 at the age of 26, he left behind three albums which are gradually making him a posthumous legend. ‘Bryter Layter’ is the second of these LPs to. Drake’s melodies are seldom less than enchanting. Built around acoustic folk-jazz guitar figures and muffled percussion, they become emotionally charged when shaded by arranger Robert Kirby’s poignant, eddying strings. Drake’s impressionistic lyrics are vivid but provocatively sketchy, making them as curiously personal as phrases mumbled in sleep. They’re delivered in an airy, nearly unconscious whisper that blends as naturally into the arrangements as a breeze rippling through tall grass.”

Score: #23 of the “100 Greatest British Albums Ever” (Q Magazine).
#14 of “The Greatest Albums of the ‘70s” (NME).
#245 of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” (Rolling Stone).

TUTV: Musically his most frolicsome LP. Romantic pearls about loss
and loneliness. 5-star reveries with a relaxing and dreamy timbre.
Greatly arranged and orchestrated.

Full album…

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NICK DRAKE: Biography