ARTIST: Nick Drake

One thing I love about this blog is our ever liberating mission statement of, “This is the music we like, we hope you like it too.”

With that vagueness and lack of particulars we’re not confined to only talking about ‘new’ music or a particular style or brand. With these liberties I’m allowed to talk about an artist who passed away over 35 years ago without reservation. Why talk about it now? Cause its music I’m loving and maybe you’ll discover him for the first time or be reminded of how amazing he really was.

Right before I left on winter break I received a package of 3 CDs from my brother Ty. Enclosed was an album by Nick Drake titled Pink Moon. I’ll expose my ignorance right now by saying I had never known of Nick Drake before I received that CD, but I was immediately entranced by everything I heard. I jumped on the internet to see if he had released anything recently (assuming as I did that this album couldn’t be more than ten or fifteen years old.) It had been almost exactly 35 years to the day of me hearing his music for the first time that Nick Drake passed away.

I was more than a little heartbroken. That heartbreak soon gave way to being astonish at the music he had created. 35 years after its initial creation its still incredibly fresh, it doesn’t feel dated in the least. I’m not telling you to listen to this on the grounds that it is ‘influential or groundbreaking’ (although it no doubt is), I’m not telling you to listen so that you better understand the evolution of modern music, but rather I’m telling you to listen because its just plain ol’ good music. Absolutely timeless.

mp3: Nick Drake – Pink Moon
from the album Pink Moon (Amazon/iTunes)

mp3: Nick Drake – Place to Be
from the album Pink Moon (Amazon/iTunes)