Five Leaves Left |
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Released: July 3, 1969 Peak: -- US, 85 UK, -- CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.30 UK Genre: British folk |
Tracks:
Total Running Time: 41:43 |
Rating: 3.974 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings)
Quotable:“A classic British folk disc” – Jason Verlinde, Amazon.comAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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Nick Drake’s Short LifeNick Drake was “a shy, sensitive depressive” AD who “was actually a happy child, growing up in a close family, and any form of depression only really set in during the final three or four years of his life.” AD He “died before he could be appreciated.” RV He “struggled with mental illness – he died after an overdose of antidepressants, an apparent suicide.” TM“It’s little wonder why Drake felt frustrated at the lack of commercial success his music initially gathered.” AM “During his lifetime, Nick Drake sold only a small amount of records and played only a handful of concerts.” AD “By the age of 30, Drake recorded three albums now recognized as brilliant – Pink Moon, Bryter Layter and his greatest effort Five Leaves Left.” RV “His early tragic death has frozen him in time.” AD “His rise to prominence in terms of reputation has been slow and gradual through the years.” AD “The cult of Nick Drake, like those of later luminaries such as Marc Bolan and Kurt Cobain, has elevated him beyond his music to an entirely different level. The work of his most understated of British folk artists remains essential listening for anyone interested in finding out what the Sixties were actually about.” RD The TroubadourHe “was like a troubadour. He gently sings” RV with “a soft, caressing voice” AD that is “an otherworldly, hollowed-out half whisper.” TMHe sings “over hypnotic folk and jazz influenced guitar patterns.” AD “He was blessed with natural talent of course,” AD but it was a style he “spent hours upon hours upon hours practicing and perfecting.” AD His “guitar playing is sometimes overlooked when there is so much else on display through the poetic lyrics, a gorgeous voice and the mystique surrounding his short time in this world.” AD Regarding his lyrics, he “wrote spare, wrenching songs unlike anything else in popular music.” TM Drake delivered “words more beautiful and profound than a man should be able to fathom.” RV The “lyrics show maturity well beyond the age of their 20-year-old creator.” AZ Production and the Side PerformersDrake gets “fine production from Joe Boyd and assistance from folks like Fairport Convention’s Richard Thompson.” AM Pentangle’s “Danny Thompson is the most regular side performer on the album, his bass work providing subtle heft while never standing in the way of the song.” AM“Drake also recruited school friend Robert Kirby to create most of the just-right string and wind arrangements.” AM “The baroque sounds of a chamber string group” AZ provided “a somber, funereal aura.” TM The FirstWith his debut album, Nick Drake delivered “a classic British folk disc.” AZ “Newcomers be forewarned: this music is as infectious as it is bleak.” AZ “Drake developed music uniquely suited to solitude.” TM It “was a remarkable work stuffed with complex, introspective music but leavened with arrangements and production straight off the pop shelf.” RD “The record is full of glittering, warm sounds that have not aged a jot.” RD“Drake assays his tunes with just enough drama – world-weariness in the vocals, carefully paced playing, and more – to make it all work.” AM “His songs are mournful…Yet he’s not morose, just more in touch with the darkness of life.” RV He “steered a careful balance between too-easy accessibility and maudlin self-reflection, combining the best of both worlds while avoiding the pitfalls on either side. The result was a fantastic debut appearance, and if the cult of Drake consistently reads more into his work than is perhaps deserved, Five Leaves Left is still a most successful effort” AM and “remains the place to begin for any Drake investigation.” RD The Songs“Drake died five years after this recording, making the album title a haunting premonition. Even more prescient is the song Fruit Tree, in which he sings, ‘Fruit tree, fruit tree / No one knows you but the rain and the air / Don’t you worry / They’ll stand and stare when you’re gone.’” RV“Time Has Told Me”“Opening with Time Has Told Me is perfect, a wonderful way to open a debut album, a statement of intent. All the Nick Drake trademarks are present and correct. A lovely, lilting melody. Rich, deep and romantic vocals. The guitar truly is hypnotic.” AD“River Man”River Man, “whose weary, questioning lyrics lie beautifully on Nick’s exquisitely soft tenor voice, and where his grasp of the acoustic guitar pitches him between folk and psychedelia.” RD The song “is bordering on genius. The sound of Nick and acoustic is enhanced here by tasteful string arrangements that sweep past and perfectly suit the melodies and vocal lines. Nick sounds especially alluring and mysterious vocally through this song. The lyrics are poetry and everything is just perfect. The guitar is amazingly strong for acoustic guitar playing.” AD“Three Hours”“Three Hours was written for a friend of Nick’s. The lyrics are ever so slightly mysterious in their poetry. So much so, that same friend didn’t have the faintest idea what the song was actually about.” AD “Understatement is the key to his songs and performances’ general success, which makes the combination of his vocals and Rocky Dzidzornu’s congas…so effective.” AM“Way to Blue”“Sometimes he projects a little more clearly, as on the astonishing voice-and-strings combination Way to Blue, while elsewhere he’s not so clear, suggesting rather than outlining the mood.” AM “’Way to Blue’ ditches the guitar entirely to concentrate on orchestrated backing to highlight Nick’s voice. A sad, beautiful and mournful melody. Lyrics that sound so full of loneliness. So very lonely, and going straight for the heart. Makes you want to hug somebody to comfort them.” AD “Nick expressed particular emotions…that perhaps have never been expressed better by anybody else in music.” AD
“Day Is Done”“The guitar returns for Day Is Done, a short little song to carry on from ‘Way to Blue’ in a sense – but comes across more as a song of resignation. It’s no less beautiful for it though, and the string arrangements are something else.” AD“Cello Song”With the “heart-rending, once-heard-never-forgotten semi-Eastern cello melody” RD of “the lovely Cello Song” AM “Nick sounds happy…The song [is] full of a particular energy bringing to mind a morning breaking in springtime. It contrasts with Nicks image of being perpetually Autumn. Early in the song he sings ‘you have nothing to fear’ which is kind of nice.” AD“The Thoughts of Mary Jane”Drake’s “lyrics capture a subtle poetry of emotion, as on the pastoral semi-fantasia of The Thoughts of Mary Jane,” AM in which he “continues the feeling of a hazy springtime, moving onto to a feeling of spending a late afternoon with someone beautiful in a field of long grass.” AD His “soft, articulate singing” AM is “romantic and touching” AD in what makes for one of his “luminous portraits of women.” TM“Man in a Shed”“The breezy and jazzy Man in a Shed” AD “lacks the romance of other songs, but the performance is as good as anything else here.” AD “The playful ballad” RV is the one exception to the otherwise mournful songs on the album. RV“Fruit Tree”With its “philosophical musings on fame,” TM “Fruit Tree is almost impossible to describe. Nick sounds wise, lost, in his dying days. The strings are beautiful, the vocal reaching into your heart and pleading. The guitar goes round, repeating patterns, but changing them through variation, and the lyrics are some of the best Nick ever wrote.” AD“Saturday Sun”“Saturday Sun rather than ‘Fruit Tree’ ends the album. ‘Fruit Tree’ would have made a rather heavy ending. ‘Saturday Sun’ is subtly jazz influenced and utterly gorgeous – like being tucked into a bed by a loved one.” AD |
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First posted 6/19/2011; last updated 10/14/2026. |
