Nick Drake – Bryter Layter (Island 1970)

‘Bryter Layter’ is often considered Nick Drake’s least successful album. Personally I will say it’s underrated, even though I still favour both its predecessor and the third album. The reason is simply that ‘Bryter Layter’ is a lot more cheerful (probably wrong word, but still…) than the other two. It mostly lacks the dark, dreamy and utterly melancholic vibe that both ‘Five Leaves Left’ and ‘Pink Moon’ are filled to the brim with. Many people also think ‘Bryter Layter’ is an overproduced album. I tend to disagree on that, with the exception of ‘Poor Boy’ (the ONLY Nick Drake song I don’t like much). Other than that one, the songwriting is excellent on this album too! My favourite song here has always been ‘At The Chime of A City Clock’. It has a wonderful, early 70’s atmosphere and late night jazzy arrangement that I find totally irresistable. And oh those vocal melodies! Pure magic. I also love the melancholic ‘Fly’, ‘Northern Sky’ (probably his best known song) and not at least the closer ‘Sunday’. The flute solo on the latter gives me goosebumps every single time! The other songs are also very good, and full of light breezy melodies. The whole album has a very nice summer feeling (in stark contrast to his other albums), and comes highly recommended. But start with his debut album ‘Five Leaves Left’, if you haven’t yet discovered this fantastic artist – that left the world way too early. His three albums are quite different, but they are all timeless works of art. I often wonder how he would have evolved had he just kept on with his life and kept on making albums. That is one of the world’s big mysteries.