Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

Released - November 1970

Producer - Joe Boyd

Selected Personnel - Nick Drake (Vocals/Guitar); Dave Pegg (Bass); David Mattacks (Drums); Richard Thompson (Guitar); Robert Kirby (Orchestrations); Paul Harris (Piano); John Cale (Viola/Celeste/Piano/Organ)

Standout Track - Hazey Jane II

After being talked into giving Nick Drake a try by my new Vietnam-bound friend Emma, as I explained earlier with Five Leaves Left, I decided to give two albums a try. Certain stuff I found online suggested that 1970's Bryter Layter was his worst album (though it still carries a huge amount of acclaim - when an artist leaves a legacy of only three albums, choosing a best or worst is always going to be tricky), so I decided to give it a miss. However, on finding that my housemate Tanya had a copy of it, and having enjoyed Five Leaves Left and Pink Moon immensely, I decided to give it a listen, and was pleasantly surprised by it. If this is the sound of an artist's lowest creative moment, then it's a very special artist indeed. However, it wasn't just the high quality of this delightful record that surprised me, but also its sunniness and optimism and its full-band sound. Neither seemed to fit into the gap between his other two albums, and it feels very different to what I expected would have been the middle-ground leading up to the sparse, unadorned beauty and despair of Pink Moon.

Effectively, I assumed this would sound a lot more like Pink Moon than it does. I also assumed it would have been increasingly easy to detect Drake's depression and feelings of isolation and despair. Even on his final record, the music is so achingly lovely that it's easy to miss the sense of utter despondency and loss in the man himself, while on Five Leaves Left the lush string orchestrations mask any sense of nihilism very well. But it's almost as if Drake's mood had a brief upswing in 1970 and he rediscovered the hope and optimism of songs like "Saturday Sun." The instrumentals on offer here - the gorgeous "Introduction," the perhaps overly sweet "Bryter Layter" and the tranquil closer "Sunday" all suggest sunny optimism and a general sense of being at peace in the world, and both versions of "Hazey Jane" - the slower and quieter first version and the brilliant full-band second version, are so relentlessly feelgood that anybody who told you the man who wrote it was suffering from depression would be difficult to take seriously. Still, the suggestions of Drake's mindset are there - "Fly," complete with the Velvet Underground's John Cale on viola and harpsichord, is a touching plea for understanding and acceptance from those around him, made all the more affecting by Drake's own shyness and fear of social interaction, and "One Of These Things," while it refrains from giving anything more than the barest of hints into what it's really getting at, suggests a general wistful regret at the path his life has led him down.

The bigger surprise, perhaps, is that full band sound. Having learned of how Drake had clashed with producer Joe Boyd during the recording of Bryter Layter, principally over Boyd's insistence on using overdubs in contrast to Drake's desire for a more organic sound, I was surprised to see that Boyd was recalled as producer, and this time pushed for even more overdubs, including a rhythm section. Quite why Drake allowed this is a mystery, but one can assume that the commercial failure of his first album meant he was hardly in a position to make demands to his record company, and Boyd felt he was confident this new direction would result in more sales. As well as Cale, other session men drafted in included the majority of Fairport Convention - the recalled Richard Thompson on electric guitar, Dave Pegg on bass and David Mattacks on drums. On many of the songs, that rhythm section is sadly redundant - as on Five Leaves Left, what really impresses about Drake's work is that beautiful soft voice and his own effortless skill on the acoustic guitar, and there's little need for some of the cocktail jazz feel appended to things here by the half-hearted rhythm tracks. "Poor Boy" redeems itself somewhat by at least going all out down the lounge jazz route, complete with jazzy piano from Paul Harris, saxophone and backing vocalists, while "Hazey Jane II" is the only song that's radically transformed into something fantastic by the band treatment, morphing from the gentle folk of "Hazey Jane I" into an almost psychedelic, gloriously fun piece of 60s-styled pop in the vein of Peter Sarstedt or early Cat Stevens. Elsewhere, one almost wishes again that Boyd would allow Drake to keep things simple - "At The Chime Of A City Clock" is a beautiful melody and a wonderfully introspective lyric about Drake's feelings of anonymity and shyness moving to the city, and hardly needs the flute overdubs Boyd throws at it, and "Fly" is one of Drake's most lyrically fascinating songs, but could stand out far more than it did if it was kept simple and unadorned.

What the added instrumental layers do lend the album, however, is a sun-drenched pop sensibility that makes Bryter Layter stand very much apart from his earlier and later albums. It lacks the pastoral calm of Five Leaves Left or the stark beauty of Pink Moon, but in many ways that's to its advantage. Most of the songs aren't Nick's best, but because they're rendered as glorious uplifting pop songs rather than traditional folk, they sound different and they manage to effortlessly put a smile on the listener's face. It's undoubtedly as light and feelgood as Drake would ever sound, and perhaps that in itself is an achievement for this lovely album - that somebody going through such emotional turmoil could succeed in making something that sounds so sweet.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Nick Drake.

1. Introduction

2. Hazey Jane II

3. At The Chime Of A City Clock

4. One Of These Things First

5. Hazey Jane I

6. Bryter Layter

7. Fly

8. Poor Boy

9. Northern Sky

10. Sunday