Record review: Nick Drake, Pink Moon

Pink Moon is a record I have really avoided reviewing for some time.  Its a tough nut to crack!  This is going to be a record that just isn't for everyone and only is right for the chosen few at certain times.  The album just bleeds sadness, it's hurt down through the bones.  Really this in a lot of ways is how the indie or alternative gets its start.  It is the prototype for something like Ian Curtis and Joy Division. 

I mean that in that it forges the path of a serious yet sensitive musical expression that rejects the mainstream.  If you take Metal which I am a fan of while not mainstream it is not always serious and very seldom sensitive.  It would take grunge to find any introversion in metal.  Drakes music, especially here, works for that disenfranchised soul who does not embrace machismo as his outward face.

From the start this outsider voice begins, in Pink Moon.  It's a warning that times will change and realign.  The name Pink Moon I am not sure about it is the name used for the April Full Moon in the Farmers Almanac but I am not sure if this is a US or UK term.  It is hard to get a solid feel as lyrically it is a short piece.  When you get into songs like place to be and road you almost get this feeling that Drake feels rejected from the music business as a whole.  Perhaps even life, yes we know what happens to Drake soon after this record.  You feel rejected yourself when listening.

Parasite and Things behind the sun wow seem very heart broken indeed.  They are hard to decipher with their sing song rhyming and imagery that hides obscure but yearning to be cracked.

Harvest Breed is like a short breath before the long fall of From the morning.  Harvest almost asks if you understand are in and then From the Morning offers the cup of Koolaid to join.