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Fruit Tree

Nick Drake - Fruit Tree Audio CD

A fair review of the Nick Drake "Fruit Tree" 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: Fruit Tree
Rating:

Release Date: 1991-12-06
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Time Has Told Me 2: River Man 3: Three Hours 4: Way to Blue 5: Day Is Done 6: Cello Song 7: Thoughts of Mary Jane 8: Man in a Shed 9: Fruit Tree 10: Saturday Sun 11: Introduction 12: Hazey Jane II 13: At the Chime of a City Clock 14: One of These Things First 15: Hazey Jane I 16: Bryter Layter 17: Fly 18: Poor Boy 19: Northern Sky 20: Sunday 21: Pink Moon 22: Place to Be 23: Road 24: Which Will 25: Horn 26: Things Behind the Sun 27: Know 28: Free Ride 29: Parasite 30: Harvest Breed 31: From the Morning 32: Time of No Reply 33: I Was Made to Love Magic 34: Joey 35: Clothes of Sand 36: Man in a Shed [Demo Version] 37: Mayfair 38: Fly [Demo Version] 39: Thoughts of Mary Jane [Demo Version] 40: Been Smoking Too Long 41: Strange Meeting II 42: Rider on the Wheel 43: Black Eyed Dog [Demo Version] 44: Hanging on a Star 45: Voice From the Mountain

A fruitful tree
When he died in his mid-twenties in 1974, Drake left behind only three albums of poignant folk pop. Nick Drake was one of those rare artists who had great talents, but too little time on this earth. Three albums, and a demo/B-side collection -- sadly, that was all he created.

"Fruit Tree" collects all four albums together, in the order they were released: The first is his enchanting debut "Five Leaves Left," a wistful and startlingly polished first album. "Five Leaves First" is followed by the masterful, brooding "Bryter Layter," which many consider to be his best work of all.

His swan song was the beautiful, tormented "Pink Moon," which hints at Drake's inner turmoil, but not in a raw or obvious way. Coming after that was "Time of No Reply," a solid collection of non-album tracks. Admittedly, it's a bit of an anticlimax after the veiled emotion of "Pink Moon," but still extremely good.

It's a rare thing when am artist's entire discography is made up of beautiful songwriting and equally exquisite music, without a dud to be found. There is literally not a single bad song on the entire collection -- the worst songs on it can simply be said to be pretty good, but not one of them is actually bad or boring. That in itself is a rarity.

Drake's music is of a nearly-uniform mood -- wistful, brooding, soft and melodic. Normally a repeating theme is a bad thing, but Drake managed to keep it always interesting. He has a few catchier songs, a few bland-ish ones, and a few hopeful ones. But the overall sound is of a young man with romantic sensibilities, who was also sad and fragile.

His instrumentation is half the beauty of these, especially since folkpop with all these extra instruments is still kind of a rarity. He mixed his finger-picking guitar style with viola, strings, piano, and other such instruments. It adds extra beauty -- and often ethereality -- to the grounded guitar.

But despite his loneliness, Drake had immense writing ability. His songwriting has a simple eloquence, full of literate allusions to classic poetry. So unsurprisingly, his songs are full of beautifully poetic moments ("Time has told me/You came with the dawn/A soul with no footprint/A rose with no thorn"). Some of them even hint at the depressed state of mind.

Nick Drake left behind only a few albums, but "Fruit Tree" allows you to hear them all together. Exquisite, understated, and truly timeless.

Not quite everything in this collection.
It's a b-side of a single. You need to try and find Broken Earth by Soft Machine. Nick Drake does the vocals, beautiful track - as always. .

Timeless piece of music history....
If singer/songwriters are your cup of tea, you CANNOT go wrong. Will there ever be another Nick Drake? Many have tried - few have come close. I won't waste your time duplicating what other reviewers have already stated so eloquently, except to say, in my humble opinion, this is the man who started it all. Get your hands on anything he has recorded. . . you will not be disappointed.

Fruitful "Tree"
When he died in his mid-twenties in 1974, Drake left behind only three albums of poignant folk pop. Nick Drake was one of those rare artists who had great talents, but too little time on this earth. Three albums, and a demo/B-side collection -- sadly, that was all he created.

"Fruit Tree" collects all four albums together, in the order they were released: The first is his enchanting debut "Five Leaves Left," a wistful and startlingly polished first album. "Five Leaves First" is followed by the masterful, brooding "Bryter Layter," which many consider to be his best work of all.

His swan song was the beautiful, tormented "Pink Moon," which hints at Drake's inner turmoil, but not in a raw or obvious way. Coming after that was "Time of No Reply," a solid collection of non-album tracks. Admittedly, it's a bit of an anticlimax after the veiled emotion of "Pink Moon," but still extremely good.

It's a rare thing when am artist's entire discography is made up of beautiful songwriting and equally exquisite music. There is literally not a single bad song on the entire collection -- the worst songs on it can simply be said to be pretty good, but never bad. That in itself is a rarity.

Drake's music is of a nearly-uniform mood -- wistful, brooding, soft and melodic. Normally a repeating theme is a bad thing, but Drake managed to keep it always interesting. He has a few catchier songs, a few bland-ish ones, and a few hopeful ones. But the overall sound is of a young man with romantic sensibilities, who was also sad and fragile.

But despite his loneliness, Drake had immense writing ability. His songwriting has a simple eloquence, with poetic overtones. He also was a pioneer of the "folk pop" sound, mixing his finger-picking guitar style with viola, strings, piano, and other such instruments. It adds extra beauty -- and often ethereality -- to the grounded guitar.

Nick Drake left behind only a few albums, but "Fruit Tree" allows you to hear them all together. Exquisite, understated, and truly timeless.

Don't make the mistake that I did...
Don't make the mistake that I did and buy one of his cds, because you will eventually need the next. . and then the next. It is much cheaper to just get right to the cold hard truth: You will love this music; all of it. I wish I trusted the reviews and just bought the darn box set, but no. . . I had to get each album one. . . at. . . a. . . time. . . What a waste of time and money!

Nobody does it like Nick Drake. Every single song is five stars, in my book. Buy 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.