Nick Drake
Pink Moon

Release Date: 1972 | Tracklist

For passionate followers of music, we often rely on its unquestioned ability to mirror our moods, to provide metaphors for our lives, to encapsulate the emotions raging inside and out at any given moment. The power of music to transcend everyday lives through a blunt combination of lyrical relevance and moving sonic atmospheres is well founded and inarguable. There’s a reason frat boys pound beers to AC/DC, just as there is a reason depressed men throw on Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” or “For Emma, Forever Ago” during their most self-contemplative and morose moments. We find ourselves in certain records, either through a direct correlation to the artist, the themes governing its lyrics, or the general likeness to an album’s overall mood in correlation to life experience.

Despite being dead for over 30 years, Nick Drake has carved out a niche alongside Dylan in relation to providing the ultimate canvas for self-contemplation. His master-stroke, “Pink Moon,” is “Blood on the Tracks” lite, a simpler yet superior sounding album that paints a soundtrack to depression and contemplation, yet holds the rare ability to inspire hope alongside its bleakest moments. To say “Pink Moon” is a simple album is both fitting and a gross understatement at the same time. Barely clocking 30 minutes, there is roughly 10 seconds of the record that does not exclusively feature a devastated voice and a downtrodden yet brilliant played acoustic guitar. If one finds themselves pondering their lives, say, in front of a roaring fire or alongside a deserted highway at night, “Pink Moon” is a perfect accompaniment. It will be over quickly, yet it’s heavy atmosphere will literally seep in and engross the mind, leaving one profoundly impacted if their current mood is in alignment with the album’s themes.

Drake’s performance throughout “Pink Moon” is understated, yet astounding. It’s in the way the album contradicts itself, showcasing the musings of a clearly tortured man, carrying the bane of genius, trying to fight between utter despair and a fleeting, yet breathing sense of hope. The voice is yearning but carried well. The guitar playing, from a folk music perspective, is utterly astonishing. The songwriting skill is almost unmatched in the genre. Drake impacts the listener profoundly in myriad forms. It’s the way “Road” opens with a bright, gorgeous guitar melody before finalizing itself as one of the greatest songs in folk history. It’s the way the Title Track burns itself into your brain right around the time the piano kicks in. It’s the way “From the Morning” both depresses the sh*t out of you yet inspires at the same time. Finally, it’s in the way there is nary a second of weakness to be found in Drake’s tortured masterpiece. “Pink Moon” is segued brilliantly, the album flowing perfectly, matching its downtrodden brilliance to your very existence. All you have to do is be in the right mood.

Essentials:

Road
Pink Moon
From the Morning

Recommended:

Everything Else

Tweet

Recent reviews by this author
Judas Priest Firepower	Gang of Youths Go Farther in Lightness
Metallica Master of Puppets	Captain Beyond Sufficiently Breathless
Motorhead Ace of Spades	Highly Suspect Mister Asylum

user ratings (2162)

rate it Awful - 1 Very Poor - 1.5 Poor - 2 Average - 2.5 Good - 3 Great - 3.5 Excellent - 4 Superb - 4.5 Classic - 5

4.5 superb