Nick Drake

... his brief lifetime, Nick Drake produced three albums of chilling, somber beauty. With hindsight, these have come to be recognized as peak achievements of both the British folk-rock scene and the entire singer/songwriter genre, with Drake's quiet, breathy vocals gliding over gorgeous chamber pop instrumentation and rolling arrangements on 1969's Five Leaves Left and 1971's Bryter Layter before taking a turn for spare folk minimalism on 1972's Pink Moon. Impressive performances were only part of Drake's spell binding artistry, however. Whatever kind of song his voice was applied to took on a haunting quality, in no small part due to the aching melancholy intrinsic to his songwriting. Themes of failed romance, mortality, and depression took on new depths within Drake's body of work, and his following only grew in the years after his death. Though Drake left behind only three official studio records, their influence can be heard in countless groups that took inspiration for their glum charm. The cult-like fascination that surrounds Drake has also created a demand for any and all material recorded outside of his studio discography, leading to multiple releases of previously unshared material such as 2025's The Making of Five Leaves Left. Drake was born in 1948 in Rangoon, Burma, and picked up his interest in music at a young age with help from his mother, who also played guitar, piano, and sang. During his youth, Drake wrote and recorded songs privately at home, and even formed a band with some of his schoolmates. Though he was painfully shy, Drake occasionally performed solo at London coffee shops while attending Cambridge University. A member of Fairport Convention saw Drake perform at one such gig, and recommended the singer to producer Joe Boyd. Boyd, already a linchpin of the British folk-rock scene as the producer for Fairport and the Incredible String Band, asked Drake for a tape, and was impressed enough to give the 20-year-old a contract in 1968. Drake's debut, Five Leaves Left (1969), was the first in a series of three equally impressive, and quite disparate, albums. With understated folk-rock backing (Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson plays bass on most of the cuts), Drake created a vaguely mysterious, haunting atmosphere, occasionally embellished by tasteful Baroque strings. His economic, even pithy, lyrics hinted at melancholy, yet any thoughts of despair were alleviated by the gorgeous, uplifting melodies and Drake's calm, measured vocals. Bryter Layter (1970) was perhaps his most upbeat effort, featuring support from members of Fairport Convention, and traces of jazz in the arrangements. On some cuts, the singer/songwriter, remarkably, dispensed with lyrics altogether, offering only gorgeous, orchestrated instrumental miniatures that stood well on their own. Neither album sold well, and Drake, already a brooding loner, plunged into serious depression that often found him unable to make music, work, or even walk and talk. He managed to produce one final full-length work, Pink Moon (1972), a desolate solo acoustic album that ranks as one of the most naked and bleak statements in all of rock. He did record a few more songs before his death, but no more albums were completed, although the final sessions (along with some other fine unreleased material) surfaced on the posthumous compilation Time of No Reply. Drake's final couple of years were marked by increasing psychiatric difficulties, which found him hospitalized at one point for several weeks. He had rarely played live during his days as a recording artist, and at one point declared his intention never to record again, although he wished to continue to write songs for others. (Jamaican singer Millie Small recorded his "Mayfair" as a single, and Drake met briefly with French singer Françoise Hardy, although she never recorded any of his songs.) On November 25, 1974, he died in his parents' home from an overdose of antidepressant medication; suicide has been speculated, although some of his family and friends dispute this. In the manner of the young Romantic poets of the 19th century who died before their time, Drake is revered by many listeners today, with a following that spans generations. Those who missed him the first time around found much to revisit once they discovered him, and his pensive loneliness speaks directly to successive generations of artists who share his sense of morose alienation. Following his passing, multiple compilations, tribute albums, demo collections, and other ephemeral recordings of Drake's non-studio material have surfaced. These have ranged from repackagings of his complete recorded output such as 1979's Fruit Tree, to a 2014 release of John Peel Sessions recorded in 1969 and 1970, to the even more involved 2007 compilation Family Tree, a collection of home recordings made by Drake when he was still living at home in the late '60s, peppering songs from his mother and sister among his roughly tracked reel-to-reel demos. In 2025, Island released The Making of Five Leaves Left, an archival box set release that included previously unreleased demos, alternate takes, and out-takes from the sessions for Drake's first studio album. ~ Richie Unterberger