Product Description

After crafting a debut album full of beauteous, somber chamber-folk, Nick Drake pulled something of an about-face with the follow-up, BRYTER LAYTER. With a bright, sparkling production and orchestrations that occasionally border on Easy Listening, the framework is light and airy where FIVE LEAVES LEFT was dark and foreboding. The key, however, is that Drake's artfully expressed inner turmoil peeks through at every turn in the lyrics and in his understated-but-heartfelt vocaldelivery.
"At the Chime of a City Clock" finds Drake facing existential despair at every turn, despite an almost-lugubrious string arrangement. Perhaps the crucial moment of BRYTER LAYTER occurs on "Poor Boy", where female backing vocalists literally mock the singer's anguished laments. Clearly,for as much as Drake's heart and soul were bared in every note of his music, he was self-aware enough to know that his disillusioned-romantic view of the world was one that put him on the fringes of society. Of course, some 25 years later,his early-1970s work would find a much wider audience, eventhough the initial era of the sensitive singer/songwriter had long since passed.

Track Listing

1. Introduction
2. Hazey Jane II
3. At The Chime Of A City Clock
4. One Of These Things First
5. Hazey Jane I
6. Bryter Layter
7. Fly
8. Poor Boy
9. Northern Sky
10. Sunday

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #665 in Music
• Released on: 2000-06-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 39 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bryter Layter, the second album from Nick Drake, came in 1970, and while not quite as melancholy as his debut, Five Leaves Left, there are certain brooding qualities that continued to propagate the Nick Drake mystique. Horn, flute and string arrangements lift such songs as "At the Chime of a City Clock" and "Hazy Jane I" and "II" out of the realm of sad, folk-guitar music into something jazzier and lighter, while the beautiful piano and simple guitar of "One of These Things First" laments what could have been without sounding like a song of despair. But two tracks featuring John Cale on various instruments (such as viola and harpsichord) have the dark fragility of "Pink Moon": the lovely "Fly" is a fragile apparition, and "Northern Sky" is a dreamy, brooding plea for long-lasting love. It's definitely not the same mood music as his starker work, but it's still a fine showcase for Nick Drake. --Lorry Fleming

Customer Reviews

Perfect record
I'll be brief as I'm still getting into the album, but what an album this is. I bought Five Leaves Left years ago on my crusade to pick up as many of Channel 4's top 100 albums as I could, though I only actually became familiar with it this summer, during which time I developed a serious appreciation for the young man's unique voice and those baffling guitar fingerings. After a surprise playing of "Hazey Jane II" on Radio 2 one Friday, I was reminded of my Nick Drake quest and quickly bought Bryter Layter on Thursday last. This is the first album in a long, long time that's had me hooked from the first spin. I actually put my hand on my forehead at one stage, amazed as I was at the standard of music therein. I was hesitant at first to listen to Drake as the lead player in a band as such, but I've since come to wish that Bryter Layter were only the first in a long line of similar albums. The bass and drums make every song a joy to listen to. The instrumental tracks are particularly joyous. There's an intangible mischievousness about the flute-led title track making me laugh every time I hear it. The standout may be "At The Chime Of A City Clock", currently tussling with The Verve's "Lucky Man" for my favourite song position, but it's all good: the nonsensical lyrics of "One Of These Things First", the super-happy brass arrangements on "Hazey Jane II", the style-amalgamation of "Poor Boy" that SHOULDN'T work but does, all of it, it just adds up to make a perfect album. I'm to understand that his final album removes all of these elements, but I have enough faith in Drake's songwriting abilities to know it'll be just as entertaining. It's just such a shame that he didn't live long enough to explore each of his styles for more than an album each.

'Bryter Still'
Aw no, not another hippy. Not another counter-culture lifestyle mullah. Ok, it looks that way but first, let's check Nick Drake's hippie-dom credentials;

1, Centre Parting ? - Check.
2, Floral Shirt/Dungarees ? - Check.
3, Being on Island Records ? - Check.
4, Standing in the woods with an acoustic guitar looking meaningful ? - Check.

So, he meets the criteria, but does he have a pleasing, cynic-bashing, soulful music, designed (in a genuinely conspiratorial sense ) to make your wobbling correspondent eat his facetious words with side-orders of tofu and quorn?
Of course he does, 'Bryter Layter' is yet another excellent surprise.
This one is screaming 'winner' before you even get to the music. The sleeve reveals he has John Cale and Richard Thompson (who is rapidly becoming one of my all time heroes) in tandem, so you instinctively know he's running from the winning blocks.
Drake's from the Cat Stevens school of smoothy folk-pop, but he's far from drone and earnestness. He's got torrential strings, ringing guitar, and more impressively, good songs in abundance. A big music (in a small sense) but it compliments his sweet lyrics and melodies without swamping them.
Thompson's influence is immeasurable. Not just here but in music generally. He's enriched works from Sandy Denny to David Thomas, and his enigmatic-isms are seized on by Drake who uses them as a platform for his own successes, a building-block to his own particularly pleasing house of tricks. On top, he's got the best use of flute and strings since Tull's sumptuous 'Reasons For Waiting',(which a fair block of 'BL' is very like) and a vital, vibrant album results.
Sure, Drake looks all Woodstock, wet and wimpy,(and his shoes are a disgrace!) but his voice has a sandpaper smoothness, and his songs very definitely have depth, insight and unity. He ticks the creative boxes much more than the (deliciously) sarcastic ones above, and therefore he emerges with kudos and no shortfall of credit.
He's nowhere near the genius Roy Harper is, (See? That Thompson again!) but 'BL' is firmly on the right track, and can fight it's corner with vim and plenty of pride.
So, puns well and truly on the back-burner, (and isn't it cute the way that my reviews are circular?) one last condition..

Does Nick Drake have a deserved 5-star brilliant album ? - Check.

Quintessentially English Perfection
The middle album of Nick Drake's all too short recording career is his shot at what some world call "pop". Obviously a kind of 'folk-rock pop', some distance from the desolate tone of his last record Pink Moon, and a fuller, more upbeat sound from his sensational debut Five Leaves Left.

Everything about Bryter Layter is extraordinary. Nick's incredible guitar style pushes songs on just like FLL, Joe Boyd's elegant production is still in place, but here he is comlimented by a "who's who" of Island record label-mates as backing, including John Cale, Dave Mattacks, Richard Thompson and Dave Pegg.

The song's themselves are among Drake's very best. The three instrumentals are certainly not filler material, but the other songs simply take ones breath away.

Hazey Jane II, with it's jazzy trumpets is as upbeat as Drake ever sounded. It seems a shame he never made more songs like this.

At The Chime Of A City Clock is the song-ifercation of Nick Drake - only he could have written it. English, understated, clever and ultimately very charming.

One Of These Things First is simpler than his usual fare, but has always been a favourite of mine. The yearning lyrics and driving piano solo last long in the memory.

Hazey Jane I wouldn't hardly be a song but for Drake's incessant plucking, but somehow it works! At one moment every instument falls away bar Nick's guitar before he pulls them all back together, leaving this heart to skip a beat.

Fly is classic Drake: a short, sweet, longing, remarkably poetic lovesong. Again his voice is crying out for love, losing the mind and breaking ones heart.

Poor Boy is a lengthy track that sees Drake almost seem like the leader of a folky-blues band, with rousing backing vocals and grooving piano guitar drums and bass. Again, no-one else could write it.

Northern Sky, almost a duet with Cale, is perhaps the finest love song ever written. I can only think of Joni Mitchell's A Case of You and Nina Simone's If You Knew that come close. It is simply an astonishingly beatiful song.

This album, like his others, should be known by the masses rather than worshipped by the priveliged few. That, however, is something I'm quite pleased about!