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Free Music Notes for Five Leaves LeftFree Music Review: For Drake, Fame WAS but a Fruit Tree Hit: 5 StarsPink Moon was dark as they come, but Five Leaves Left, despite others saying it is the most depressing of the three, or some other stuff, it's like an autumn morning. Or a dark night on the river. It's also longer, and features more than just the guitar. Nothing is as naked as Pink Moon, but Five Leaves Left is beautiful, and, if you have the ears, becomes apparent with the first seven seconds of The Thoughts of Mary Jane (though to me it seems about drugs).
Five Leaves Left takes me on a journey to the rivers, forests, star-filled sky, and sunsets (sometimes with a girl on my side, sometimes not). Drake's lyrics, as always, are filled with lyrics of hope , depression, life. Sometime, I really need to take a music based journey to the places that conjure in my mind. Really experience the music (actually, you all should, NOW). That's a testament that how, some music, can really be more than just a mere listen.
I think I would stop right now, because Five Leaves Left has been described just by that last paragraph. Man this review was crappy! While not as good as other albums, some albums, even if they aren't the greatest to exist, just cannot be said with justice (at least my attempt at it). Shows when you try to review albums you really just can't explain. Just. Listen.
9/10
Free Music Review: Nothing to Get Excited About Hit: 2 StarsThis guy got passed me back in the day, even though I basically bought every album that came out back in the 60s and 70s. I was listening to sattelite radio and heard a cut from this one and I liked the moodish thing going on and the hint of drug influence in there somewhere, so I checked out a few websites on Nick Drake. His tragic story kind of hooked me so I bought this CD. Quite frankly I find this to be interesting, but not something I would recomend to everybody. The mood of depression stays so heavy that every song sounds the same and makes me feel like I am watching one of those pulse readouts in a hospital room, and it is a flatliner. I suppose that some people dig this mellowed out sort of "I wanna leave this world stuff" but I get enough of it quick. Drake's guitar work was a bit unique in it's time, but as many times as I try, I just can't quite get with this program. It is good to listen to and then take a nap.
Free Music Review: Simply put: Hit: 5 StarsAMAZING. Drake is a musical genius. He speaks to the soul and speaks of truth. Speaks of life, speaks of death. All encompassing GOD.
Free Music Review: Don't miss him this time around Hit: 4 StarsAs someone whose musical sensibilities were shaped in the 60's, I'm ashamed to say I didn't discover Nick Drake 'till 2000. Someone suggested I listen, and I bought 3 CDs within the week.
Listening to his music feels like I missed an artist whose music was as essential to his times as Joni Mitchell or Van Morrison. It feels impossible that his music escaped me at the time. If you've never heard him, take a listen. You won't regret it.
Free Music Review: Just plain beautiful Hit: 5 StarsNot quite as minimalist as Pink Moon, which is part of what makes it debatably Drake's best record, and certainly the first album to get. Incidentally, it's also his debut. The album is about as folksy as folksy gets: some of it is filtered through country ("Time Has Told Me"), other times through chamber music ("Day is Done"; "Cello Song"). The string arrangements are often quite captivating: they ruin "Way to Blue", at least for me; but give a lot of flavor to "Day is Done" and especially "Cello Song". Not to take credit away from Nick himself: his meditations on life, love, and loneliness are often fascinating ("Three Hours"; "The Thoughts of Mary Jane"). I'll admit it's a bit hard to understand Drake's quiet, mumbling diction, but even then sometimes it's nice just to sit back and let his soft baritone take you away (the hypnotic "Fruit Tree"). Bits of this ramble, sure ("River Man"; "Man in a Shed"), but all things considered this is a hell of an album. Oh, and if you liked Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, you'd be glad to know that "Saturday Sun" is comfortably close to that album's best moments. I don't think Bachman-Turner Overdrive could put out something anywhere near this. Do you?
More Free Music Notes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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