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Throwback Review: Nick Drake “Pink Moon”

After two albums that were financial failures, and darkness brewing from long stints of isolation, folk singer Nick Drake returned to the studio to record his third and final album, Pink Moon. Often noted as Drake’s pinnacle work, Pink Moon is a testament to the tortured and unappreciated artist. It’s comparatively more bare than his previous efforts, and discusses themes of loneliness, self-loathing, and Drake’s infamous depression (which later lead to his demise). Despite this, the songs are mystical and offer a sort of daydream effect, allowing the listener to escape to faraway beaches or the deep wilderness and fall into a meditative state.

The songs, solemn ballads comprised of Drake’s open-chord playing and grief-stricken voice, all run at three minutes or less, making the album only 28 minutes long. Tracks like “Pink Moon” and “Which Will” offer an innocent form of sadness, while “Parasite” shows the darker side of the troubadour’s aesthetic, particularly in the refrain, “And take a look, you may see me on the ground, for I am the parasite of this town.”

“Horn” and “Things Behind the Sun” are more haunting due to the melancholic melodies and dissonance, thereby cracking the image of Drake as just an “innocent sad-sap.” The most beautiful track on the album, though, is the closer “From the Morning.” Taking a short trek through Drake’s person, seeing all his dark, terrible struggles and utter disappointment in how life’s played out, we see a glimmer of hope with the opening line, “A day once dawned, and it was beautiful.” “From the Morning” works like the rising sun after a long walk through the open country under Drake’s ‘pink moon,’ which makes this song all the more tragic for the fact that this was the folk singer’s last album; he died not long after this record was released. It is simultaneously like watching the last sunset of your life before heading onto the next world and a ‘farewell’ song from Drake to all who listened to him at the time.

With Pink Moon, there are no elaborate orchestra pieces or jazzy licks surrounding these songs — it’s simply Drake alone and solemn with his guitar. Many like to think that that’s how Drake should’ve been all along (not that he wasn’t ever ‘himself’ but that this album best represents the man and folk singer he was, compared to the two albums that proceeded it). It’s not an album of ‘gloom and doom’ but of inner struggles and searching for the rays of hope that stem from the morning sun. If anything, these songs are special, and remain in the hearts of the many that have stumbled upon the unappreciated talent of a musician both gifted and burdened with genius.

Review by Trevor L. Sensor. Follow him on Twitter @trevorsensor.



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