Search - Nick Drake :: Nick Drake: A Treasury

Fine collection

Pieter | Johannesburg | 08/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As an introduction to the work of Nick Drake, this album competes with the Way to Blue collection. Except for Hazey Jane I & II, Cello Song, I Was Made To Love Magic, Place To Be and Road, all the tracks are the same although the sound quality is better on this one, at least as far as my copies are concerned.



Drake's individual albums are all classics but they are very much self-contained units. From the album Bryter Layter come Hazey Jane I and II, Poor Boy and Northern Sky. Five Leaves Left contributes Cello Song, Way To Blue and River Man, whilst the stark minimalist album Pink Moon supplies Place To Be, Pink Moon, From the Morning and Road. Black Eyed Dog comes from the posthumous Time Of No Reply album.



On Sweet Old World Lucinda Williams beautifully covered Which Will and Swans made a bloodcurdling version of Black Eyed Dog, found on their Various Failures 1988-1992 album. The Dream Academy dedicated the song Life In A Northern Town (1985) to Nick Drake. His song Mayfair had already been covered by Millie (of My Boy Lollipop fame) in 1970.



My complaint about both Way To Blue and Treasury is the omission of Fly, a song that first appeared on Bryter Later and was then included, in a different version, on Time of No Reply. In my opinion, it is one of his most moving songs. Besides that, this compilation contains a fair selection of Drake's eerily compelling music but it is still better to investigate the original albums.



Fruit Tree"