At 12:01 PM -0700 7/5/02, Mikail Faunus wrote:

On a different note, are any of you familiar with Nick Drake. I recently acquired "Five Leaves Left" on a friend's recommendation. He's exceedingly depressing yet I can't stop listening, something to do with his captivating lyrics and cathartic guitar lines. I'm interested to hear your perspective of this artist and recommendations for other works.

I'd strongly recommend the other two, _Bryter Layter_ (very rich orchestral pop even better than _Five Leaves_) and _Pink Moon_, the solo acoustic "album"--an EP, really. There's a good box set of them (plus a rareties disc I rarely listen to) on Hannibal, _Fruit Tree_. If you're not familiar with him, the booklet's a good backgrounder. You can also check out this site, among others: http://www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/DRAKE.html It's easy to see his untimely passing foreshadowed in the work, and yet the work is just so damn cathartic and enjoyable on its own. I mean, some of the songs don't work for me, and the rareties disc has some real misses on it, but songs like "The River Man," "Hazy Jane II," "Northern Sky," "Place to Be," "Parasite," and others just amaze me. (The presence of some very fine players on the recordings--Richard Thompson and John Cale among them--make it even more special.) If he'd have survived, it would have been interesting to see how he would've developed. -- Maurice Rickard http://mauricerickard.com/