Album: Bryter Layter
Artist: Nick Drake
Born: Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire
Released: November 1970
Genre: Folk
Influenced: The Cure, Beth Orton, Radiohead, Bon Iver
Nick Drake's run of three studio albums is one of the most concentrated periods of genius in pop music, and 20 years of listening to his trio of albums has done little to help me pick a favourite among them. Bryter Layter is Drake at his most confident and assured, ably assisted by members of Fairport Convention and the Beach Boys, plus John Cale. Again, Drake's university friend Robert Kirby provided the string arrangements. After the stirring introduction, the upbeat jazz of Hazey Jane II makes it hard to argue this is really folk, especially when you hear the blues saxophone of the next song, At The Chime Of A City Clock, but Drake's characteristic guitar plucking and pastoral, melancholy themes underpin it all. The two songs that close side 1 are both Drake masterpieces. One Of These Things First is brilliant songwriting, an end of relationship musing on what he might have been to someone before they broke up ("a whole long lifetime / could have been the end"). Hazey Jane I sees Drake almost expressing annoyance at a woman he finds it hard to relate to, while the music is a heady mix of guitar picking, strings and brilliant drumming by Fairport's Dave Mattacks.
Side 2 is one of the most sublime suite of songs ever recorded. The instrumental Bryter Layter sets the tone, the flute solo creating a light and airy feel, acting as a great intro to the dreamy pastoral folk of Fly ("come sit down on the fence in the sun / and the clouds will roll by"). Fly is one of two songs on the album on which John Cale contributes, playing viola and harpsichord (on Fly) and celeste, piano and organ (on Northern Sky). In between those two songs is Poor Boy, another jazz-tinged recording and one of the few Drake songs to feature backing vocals. The lyrics though bely the upbeat tempo and read like a desperate cry for help. Northern Sky is one of Drake's finest songs (I once was at a wedding where it was used beautifully), with its aching sense of yearning to find a soulmate and feel a connection ("I never held emotion in the palm of my hand"). The album closes with another instrumental, Sunday, which has a lovely, bittersweet flute solo. This album should have secured Nick Drake's success, but the fact it sold so poorly was one of many factors in his ultimate undoing.
Nick Drake's run of three studio albums is one of the most concentrated periods of genius in pop music, and 20 years of listening to his trio of albums has done little to help me pick a favourite among them. Bryter Layter is Drake at his most confident and assured, ably assisted by members of Fairport Convention and the Beach Boys, plus John Cale. Again, Drake's university friend Robert Kirby provided the string arrangements. After the stirring introduction, the upbeat jazz of Hazey Jane II makes it hard to argue this is really folk, especially when you hear the blues saxophone of the next song, At The Chime Of A City Clock, but Drake's characteristic guitar plucking and pastoral, melancholy themes underpin it all. The two songs that close side 1 are both Drake masterpieces. One Of These Things First is brilliant songwriting, an end of relationship musing on what he might have been to someone before they broke up ("a whole long lifetime / could have been the end"). Hazey Jane I sees Drake almost expressing annoyance at a woman he finds it hard to relate to, while the music is a heady mix of guitar picking, strings and brilliant drumming by Fairport's Dave Mattacks.
Side 2 is one of the most sublime suite of songs ever recorded. The instrumental Bryter Layter sets the tone, the flute solo creating a light and airy feel, acting as a great intro to the dreamy pastoral folk of Fly ("come sit down on the fence in the sun / and the clouds will roll by"). Fly is one of two songs on the album on which John Cale contributes, playing viola and harpsichord (on Fly) and celeste, piano and organ (on Northern Sky). In between those two songs is Poor Boy, another jazz-tinged recording and one of the few Drake songs to feature backing vocals. The lyrics though bely the upbeat tempo and read like a desperate cry for help. Northern Sky is one of Drake's finest songs (I once was at a wedding where it was used beautifully), with its aching sense of yearning to find a soulmate and feel a connection ("I never held emotion in the palm of my hand"). The album closes with another instrumental, Sunday, which has a lovely, bittersweet flute solo. This album should have secured Nick Drake's success, but the fact it sold so poorly was one of many factors in his ultimate undoing.
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