Day 123: Nick Drake – Pink Moon

Today, I wanted a nice, mellow album to have on in the background while I try to recover from New Year’s Eve. I thought I’d go for a record that I’ve been saving for a special occasion: Nick Drake’s Pink Moon. I’ve never heard it before but it seems to be every music fans favourite and it’s mellow singer-songwriter folk that’s only 28 minutes long - sounds like just the ticket.

Album cover courtesy of Island Records

Nick Drake was an English singer-songwriter and guitarist whose work started gaining popularity after he died by suicide at only 26 years old. Released in 1972, Pink Moon was his third and final album, and is widely considered to be Drake’s magnum opus.

His two previous records had a backing band, but this time Drake wanted to record something that’s simple and bare, with just his voice and a guitar. The resulting album is both comforting and a little bit haunting. There’s a melancholy that people often associate with the record due to Drake’s mental health issues but it’s not a depressing record, it’s almost more soothing than anything.

The softness of the vocals and the poetry of the lyrics shine due to the pared-back minimalism of the record. You end up forgetting that it’s just his voice and a guitar, it sounds so vivid. Lyrically, songs like “Parasite” and “Harvest Breed” are undeniably quite sad considering the circumstances of what happened to Nick Drake, but even they still feel warm and comforting.

I was thinking that Drake’s style or sound on this album reminded me of songs from the soundtrack of the O.C., which is probably the least derogative thing I can say about a record since that soundtrack was a formative experience for me growing up. I googled and lo and behold, one of his songs was on the O.C. soundtrack. Apparently his music also featured heavily in the Garden State soundtrack, so without realising it, I had heard a bit of Nick Drake’s music here and there.

I feel like this could be my new comfort record, I wanted something that sounded a bit like a calming pat on the head and Nick Drake duly obliged. I saved it for the right moment and the right moment was now. 9.5/10.