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Bryter Layter

Nick Drake - Bryter Layter Audio CD

A fair review of the Nick Drake "Bryter Layter" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Nick Drake reviews here, or go back to the Nick Drake tabs.

Band: Nick Drake
Title: Bryter Layter
Rating:

Release Date: 1992-05-08
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Introduction 2: Hazey Jane II 3: At the Chime of a City Clock 4: One of These Things First 5: Hazey Jane I 6: Bryter Layter 7: Fly 8: Poor Boy 9: Northern Sky 10: Sunday

classic - dated
this has been hyped in some areas
not as great as the hype - ok.

Not a Desert Island Album, but Just as Good
Quality-wise, Nick Drake's "Bryter Later" could easily be on my list, but that description doesn't sound quite right. People love to talk about their proverbial perfect desert-island albums.

I imagine desert islands as being dry and bright and isolated places; this album's much more suitable for rainy afternoons holed up in the condo. "Stay indoors beneath the floors, talk with neighbors only; the games you play make people say you're either weird or lonely," Drake sings on "At the Chime of a City Clock. " The music, too, amplifies the urban cabin fever vibe; the arrangements are jazzy but melancholy, with a wonderful blend of wise guitar and playful piano and sad strings and resigned horns. (The horns are crucial; they help make "Bryter Later" that rarest of things--an excellent album that doesn't quite sound like anything that came before. ) Drake's voice, soothing and hushed and cool, complements the songs perfectly, but there are great instrumental pieces, too, bisecting and bookending the album.

"Five Leaves Left" was my first--and first favorite--Nick Drake album, but now I find myself listening to this one far more frequently. There's still plenty of melancholy here; on Hazey Jane I, for instance, Drake asks: "Do you like what you're doing? Would you do it some more? Only to stop once and wonder what you're doing it for?" But all in all, the relentless depression's been tempered quite a bit. That album's vibe is I-want-to-kill-myself-because-life's-pointless-and-I-won't-be-noticed-otherwise; this is more like I-don't-quite-feel-like-going-to-the-grocery-store-today.

And that resignation's leavened, too, with a cautious optimism--today may be shot, but tomorrow's at least worth sticking around for. "Please give me a second grace; please give me a second face," Drake sings on "Fly. " And then on "Northern Sky," he asks: "Would you love me for my money? Would you love me for my mind? Would you love me through the winter? Would you love me until I die? If you would and you could, then come blow your horn for me. " It's a lovely song, but the pronouns alone are significant; on both this and "Five Leaves Left" there are times when the "you" refers to Drake himself, and the songs become mere mirrors, places for tortured artistic sensitivity and introspection, but on this, there are far more moments where the "you" is someone else. So Drake is at least spending less time gazing into mirrors and more time looking out windows, looking out from the darkened apartment at the faces in the city, searching for a connection with someone who can end the isolation.
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Sad Passing
It's obvious he was very talented. It's really sad that Nick Drake passed from this life at such a young age. That he didn't make it big while he was alive is very surprising. Bryter Layter has four great songs (Chime of the City Clock, One of These Things First, Poor Boy, and Northern Sky) and the rest is very listenable.

A pretty little fever dream
The important thing about Bryter Layter is that it's as sweeping and memorable and melancholic and uncannily beautiful as any other Nick Drake album, but that it's also more lush and intricate than anything else he's put out. It's no Pink Moon, but that hardly matters. He's backed by various Fairport Conventioneers as well John Cale on this album, and it shows; the songs are like siren coos seeping from a pastoral swath of English countryside, except that they're not weird and inaccessible like those of, say, Tim Buckley in his Starsailor period (not that Starsailor isn't a wonderful album, of course, it's just that it's a bit. . . well, weird and inaccessible). Drake's voice, which sounds like what would happen if velvet could sigh, is in fine form, and his maze-like guitar constructions are on display in all their universe-evoking glory. And there are also flutes and strings and pianos, and none of it sounds even remotely pretentious. The intricacy of Bryter Layter explodes like a flashbulb on "Poor Boy," which is an oceanic gospel-jazz odyssey with samba rhythms and ghostly backing vocals. "Hazy Jane I" sounds like being left by the love of your life on a gorgeous summer day, and "At The Chime Of A City Clock" is like winning her back in the dead of winter. "One Of These Things First" roils with quiet bitterness, and "Hazy Jane II" lets a sprightly soul rhythm percolate under a lyric that's rife with claustrophobic paranoia. "Northern Sky" is almost unbelievably gorgeous, and it contains every precious memory I have of my childhood, as well as the intense sense of loss I feel when it occurs to me that I've left those moments behind forever. There are some pretty instrumentals, too. Neat!.

Perfection, exuberance, style and truth... what an amazing Artist!
I was writing at my computer with the radio on. What can I say about Nick Drake that hasn't been said?

It was very late one night. Suddenly there was this beautiful song by a woman. I was instantly captured by it. So I got the phrase "gonna see the river man. Gonna tell him all I can. " I typed it into Google and discovered the amazing Nick Drake. The radio song was a cover version.

Funny it took seconds for me to become a fan. And within minutes I was here at amazon. uk ordering his albums. What a amazing song writer and singer. Then I discovered his recordings were some 40 years old. . . and it broke me to learn he died back in 1974 in a (accidental) suicide.

How can someone like Nick die? It does not enter my mind that the man who wrote all those beautiful and unique songs can simply die. And that was back in 1974! Those songs could have been written today. They haven't aged a month.

I would say this one is my favorite album. . . from a man who never wrote anything below brilliant. ONE OF THESE THINGS FIRST and the sweet SUNDAY are my favorite tracks. I cannot grow tired of this. On the other hand, I'm very happy to know he is getting today the recognition he deserves.

The songs are so sharp and intimate you can almost recreate the feeling (if such a thing is possible). The singing is so full of truth. The arrangements are so tasteful. Nick Drake is the rare kind of Artist who really connects. There's no noise. Just the full experience.

God bless you, Nick!
You did it!.

You can see a complete list of all Nick Drake discography, or go back to the Nick Drake tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.