Pink Moon is the most lonely, desolate, emotional and starkly beautiful album I've ever listened to. It's so stripped down, so raw, so powerful. Nick Drake's other albums are great, but they're very different from this one. They have a more chamber folk sound, a more expansive sound, but this is by far his best. It's just him, his voice, an acoustic guitar, and a sprinkling of piano on the title track, and that's all there is to it. A lot of people think that formula is quite a simple one, and it usually it is, and even here - it kind of is. But the tunings Nick Drake uses on Pink Moon are incredibly unique and the melodies are breathtaking. The deep lyrics combined with the sparse instrumentation makes for one of the most haunting listens of any album written and recorded. I think Nick Drake as a musician is kind of underrated or understated because of how seemingly simple the music is, but the playing is extremely intricate and lush, the guitar tone is incredibly precise and it's one no other folk album has. I've listened to it so many times, and it remains as melancholy and depressing as ever. I don't think I can think of a more honest, contemplative and sincere album.
Pink Moon was Nick Drake's last album, and the reason it's so short is because he simply had nothing else to give, his popularity and admiration is a posthumous one, when he was alive he was relatively unknown and under appreciated. For me, Nick Drake is as fascinating a figure in music as all of the others that died too early, even though his story isn't as publicised as the Kurt Cobains of the world. Like all musical icons that died too young, Nick Drake had his demons. He suffered from depression and insomnia throughout his life, and that really shows in his music. Pink Moon is an album that needs to be listened to at night, when you're sleep deprived, because it's incredibly cathartic. It manages to have this complexity and depth about it, and it feels quite deep, but at the same time it feels so simple. It feels like there's so much loneliness, and depression. A man on the brink of defeat, but an underlying sense of hope, even though it's just a slight flicker I think it's that flicker that keeps me coming back time after time.
By: TheCunningStunt
Heavyweight 180gm virgin vinyl LP repressing of this 1972 album. Nick Drake's third and final album, many consider to be his finest moment, was a radical departure from his previous work, stripped of the lush orchestral arrangements, Pink Moon featured Drake alone on vocals, acoustic guitar and the occasional piano accompaniment. This starkness was matched in brevity, with Pink Moon consisting of 11 short songs coming to less than half-an-hour of music. Though critically well received at the time, commercial success did not arrive till nearly 30 years later, when 30 seconds of 'Pink Moon' was used in a Volkswagen commercial.
A1 Pink Moon
A2 Place To Be
A3 Road
A4 Which Will
A5 Horn
A6 Things Behind The Sun
B1 Know
B2 Parasite
B3 Free Ride
B4 Harvest Breed
B5 From The Morning
Released with a 'pink rim' Island label in a gatefold cover containing the lyrics and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
Part of the Back To Black series. Including digital download voucher for the album.
Made in the EU
Sticker on front: "An authentic reproduction of the 1972 first pressing with original gatefold sleeve plus bonus voucher with a choice of download formats.