Album of the Week

Every week I will do a review for an album I have recently recieved, either recent or classic, and will do my best to analyze it.

This week's album is:



Nick Drake's Pink Moon

As I slipped into the cold rain on a beautifully rainy Saturday morning, I casually walked to Starbucks. I ordered a nice, hot drink and found myself a nice place to sit and watch the pitter patter of the rain on the street. I realized that I had delayed my purchase of some album that my friend suggested to me, but remembered that he said it was perfect for rainy days. I lazily made my way to my car and found the nearest cd store and immediately found a nice brand new copy of the cd. Something felt right about the purchase.

I ripped open the cd shrink wrap (triumphantly, no doubt. don't you love that feeling of tearing off the plastic?), and found an intimidating picture of the man known as Nick Drake, glaring at the owner of the cd. I popped the cd into the cd player to hear a nicely strummed guitar leading into a lulling whispery voice, remnant to me of a more emotionally disfigured Jack Johnson. The singer singing to me about a Pink Moon coming to get me, which at first seems scary, assured me with his voice that it would be alright.

The album keeps its dreary, but pleasant, tone throughout the whole album. Drake sings to the listener about moons, mornings, love, the process of aging and mostly unsurity and weakness. The lyrics, as Allmusic put, are definitely not upbringing ("you can say the sun is shining if you really want to", "I am the parasite of this town"),but also are definitely not depressing. They express a tone that is beautiful and longing, almost emotionally scarred by the tragedy that the singer went through.

Nick Drake, musically, has interesting chord tunings, useful picking styles, peculiar rhythem movements and chord patterns. His voice falls over the chords with an ageless easyness. He constantly lulles the listener into a state of awareness, and self-realization. He sings with a kind of vulnerability that no other artist could emulate.

The lack of additional instruments gives Drake's voice and ethreal quality. With just an acoustic guitar, the singer-songwriter gets his message across clearly. He puts his voice on record, in such a way, that its a gorgeous, heart-wrenching listen. The album made me feel a little saddened that this was the man's last effort, only to overdose on anti-depressants.

As each song flowed into the next, I took a long sip of my warm drink, only to think that this was the perfect album for the day.