Product Description

It's widely reported that by the time Nick Drake got aroundto recording his third and final album, PINK MOON, his already-precarious mental/emotional state had drastically deteriorated. In a deep depression, Drake recorded a brace of soloacoustic tunes, dropped the tape off unannounced at the label's office one day, and that was the last the world at large ever heard of Drake's music.
The results of those solo sessions were as harrowing and stark as anything by Robert Johnson or Charley Patton. Enclosed in an inner world of psychological distress, Drake recorded PINK MOON's dispatches from a private hell that was simultaneously terrifying and beautiful. Both the lyrics and the melodic motifs are pared to the bone here, their simplicity making them all the more immediately striking. The most nakedly emotional and disturbingmoment is probably "Parasite", a visceral-but-mysterious account of a disconsolate soul roaming through the world in search of succour, with Drake taking the starring role, ultimately offering, "take a look, you may see me in the dirt". This was the end of the road for Nick Drake in more ways than one, but just the beginning for the scores of songwriters subsequently inspired by his bleak-but-beautiful visions.

Track Listing

1. Pink Moon
2. Place To Be
3. Road
4. Which Will
5. Horn
6. Things Behind The Sun
7. Know
8. Parasite
9. Free Ride
10. Harvest Breed
11. From The Morning

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1051 in Music
• Released on: 2000-06-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 28 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A stark, solo 28-minute adieu, Pink Moon was the last album Nick Drake lived to complete. That it proved to be his last album lends a suicidal urgency, and much has since been read into its staccato bleakness. But even before his previous album, Bryter Layter, was released, Nick had decided that the next one would be just him and a guitar--"no frills" he insisted. There is little comfort to be found in songs like "Know" or "Parasite" but, in an irony Nick would have appreciated, an American car commercial featuring the haunting title track recently alerted a huge new audience to his music. Digital remastering has enhanced the sound of all Nick's albums, but perhaps Pink Moon has benefited most: its aural environment, now all-enveloping, lending a pristine clarity to that matchless singing and playing. Sombre it may be, but it is a mistake to view Pink Moon as a tombstone--or, indeed, Nick Drake as a victim. Enjoy his music. He did. --Patrick Humphries

Customer Reviews

Potentially a good record
I'll keep this review relatively short, and hopefully it'll be of use to anyone considering buying Pink Moon, Nick Drake's 3rd album.

What this album has to offer is something between Nick Drake's other 2 albums. Pink Moon isn't as upbeat and jazzy as his 2nd album Bryter Layter, but then again it isn't as depressing and gloomy as Five Leaves Left. Even if it does comprise just Nick and his guitar on all but the opening (title) track, Pink Moon doesn't necessarily leave you feeling depressed. And that's because a lot of the tracks on the album basically aren't gloomy.
For example, "Pink Moon" (Track 1) might take a while to get into, but it's not a sad song at all. Neither are songs like Road, Which Will or Free Ride. The only song on the album that I can't stand to listen to is "Know", which comprises seven repeated notes and lyrics that are not only sparse, they're bordering on chilling. But "Know" does have two good songs either side of it on the album; Parasite might well have been another attempt at self-mockery by Drake, but it's a good song with a well worked-out rhyming scheme. And Things Behind The Sun is and always has been the best song on the album, not to mention one of the only songs that have any decent length. It was the first Drake song I ever heard (thanks to my guitar teacher), and I was immediately intrigued at how a musician armed with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and quiet lyrics could grab my attention just as easily a a loud rock act can.

The album does start to trail off towards the end - I've never looked at either of the two closing tracks as particularly strong songs. But there are several good things about the record. It doesn't necessarily leave you feeling depressed. Nick might have been psychologically screwed-up at the time of recording, but as a guitarist/singer-songwriter he shows no signs of having lost any of his admirable talent on this record (with the exception of "Know", perhaps). This album showcases his clear guitar playing more than either of his other two records, since it's just him and his guitar apart from on the opening track. Plus, here's a message to anyone going through a hard time, thinking that all effort is useless: Nick might have been going through internal hell as well when he made this record, but it didn't come out sounding too bad, did it? Listening to it isn't always such a bad way to spend half an hour's free time, and its short length is convenient if you don't have a lot of spare time on your hands. I would've given the record 3 stars since not all of its tracks are as strong as "Road" and "Things Behind The Sun" (for example), but considering how much internal torment and pessimism Nick must have been going through as a young adult, we should be grateful for what he did manage to write and record. Write and record very well, I might add.

RIP Nick.

Intimate finale
I'm not going to speculate on Nick Drake's state of mind when he made this album. If you go looking for signs of trouble and disturbance, you'll probably find them whether they exist or not. On the other hand, you can savour another superb album, just the artist and his guitar with the exception of a little piano on the title track. He strums his way through the first two tracks, giving priority to the songs. On the mesmerising 'Road', however, his deft playing takes centre stage. As the album progresses, its mood seems to intensify. The brief instrumental, 'Horn', is simple, yet cunningly disturbing, and is the signal for a cloud to hover over the rest of the album. 'Things Behind The Sun' possesses an exotic but bitter flavour and wouldn't sound out of place on 'Five Leaves Left.' It's one of the outstanding tracks. 'Know', in contrast, could only belong to this album. Its insistent riff backs a somewhat ambiguous vocal, and it's debatable whether this is more menacing or the following 'Parasite'. The album lightens a little after this, but Drake's sense of irony is never far away. 'From The Morning' ends proceedings with Drake sounding as buoyant as ever, which highlights what a shame it is that 'Pink Moon' is his last release. It may be a measly half hour, but it's packed with ideas and if you've got the other two albums you'll have to have this one anyway.

Stark but beautiful
Yes its is stark. Yes it is beautiful. With this album you really feel that you are witnessing something almost too private to bear. Nick's fragile state of mind is all too clear. The emptiness and lack of production on this third and last album before Nick's untimely death, is a glimpse into the mind of a pained man, unnervingly talented, underated at the time and isolated. If you are expecting the rich lushness in Five leaves left and Bryter Layter you will be disappointed. If you want to see the songs stripped bare and performed with just Nick and his guitar then you will love this. The desolation Nick felt is conveyed lyrically and musically but that makes this album no less of a treasure for it. In fact the opposite. It is real. Painful yet real.

Nick has been an huge influence on my own music. I am sure many say the same.
Nick may have lost himself but he did not lose his way musically. A total gem.