Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Pink Moon, folk-rocker Nick Drake's somber, solo acoustic album, replicated in its original 1972 form

180-gram gatefold LP, printed inner sleeve

"Drake recorded his last album in a couple of nights, mailed the tapes to Island Records and checked himself into a psychiatric ward. If the music were as dark as the lyrics, it might be unlistenable. But Drake's soothing vocals and unadorned acoustic picking make the album unfold with supernatural tenderness." — Rolling Stone

For millions of viewers, a Volkswagen TV commercial in 1999 featuring Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" was the first time they had heard the 1972 song or its long-since-departed folk-rocker. Today, Drake's avid cult following continues to grow.

Three albums was all that Drake left the world before he passed away in 1974 at the age of 26. Now here on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl, Drake's third and final album is the one many consider to be his finest moment. Pink Moon was a radical departure from his previous work, stripped of the lush orchestral arrangements. The album 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 a half-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.

This is Drake's sparest album and it's filled with haunting tracks that have him singing moodily along. Drake's abiilty to come up with complicated jazzy chords on his guitar is highlighted by the way this album gives him a warm, intimate space in which to unwind. Featuring the tracks "Pink Moon," "Place To Be," "Road," "Parasite," "Ride," and "From The Morning."

For four years after the album's initial release, Drake appeared in the various Island Records' catalogs and album samplers, but album sales languished. His own reluctance to tour or otherwise promote his work allowed Drake to slip into the same also-ran bracket as Island's Claire Hamill and tir Na Nog, legends all. The initial 3,000 pressings sold poorly but never quite sold out and Island kept him in the catalog until Volkswagen used the title track to promote their new Cabriolet in the U.S. Nick's poorest-selling album became a best seller and the interest in all of his tiny canon blossomed. Original scarce first-pressing values soared and allowed inferior counterfeit bootleg vinyl editions to proliferate.