Made To Love Magic [Best of]

When I first read about this album, before hearing it, I was disappointed to think that it was really a rehash of the Nick Drake material we've heard before. OK, I was wrong! One thing this album gives us in these gorgeous songs is an in-depth look at Nick's Guitar playing. We get to hear what River Man really sounds like, as well as Mayfair, a brand new song from the last session called Tow the Line, a great live studio take of Three Hours, the final session remastered -- as well as remastered editions of Joey and Clothes of Sand -- and more. Robert Kirby adds his original string arrangements to two songs, from a tape he had in his potting shed! Nick's guitar and his playing have a clarity here that is stronger than on Time of No Reply. What this album also does is help cast Nick's last session in a different light. When the Fruit Tree booklet notes were written two decades ago, the final four songs were supposedly sqeezed out of a depressed young man who was all out of songs. Listening to them now, they appear to be the first few songs of the fourth Nick Drake album, never completed due to his accidental death. Even Black Dog doesn't sound terrifying, as the Fruit Tree booklet notes then made it out to be. We tend to make up stories, particularly about artists who died young. Forget what you have heard and just LISTEN to Nick's songs, to their depth and beauty.

I must say that when I heard about the gathering of these recordings, I imagined it the work of vultures squeezing a few more pounds and dollars, out of material that might have been rejected earlier for good reasons.
I'm so glad to say that I was absolutely wrong!
Indeed, this album is comprised from outtakes, demos and alternate versions from his output -unfortunately limited by his suicide- yet the result is not the shameless hawking of sub par stuff. Quite in the contrary, it is more nectar from one of the most influential Folk singer-songwriters who ever lived.
Nick Drake's spirit is back in 13 gorgeous tunes -including even a new song, Tow The Line- reminding us of his keen talent for introspective moods, and tender melodies that could create an intimate moment even in a busy NYC subway trains.
After all, although Drake died so lamentably young at 26, he managed to influence several generations of young men and women who went on, in their own right to be distinct folk voices themselves. From Elliott Smith to Devendra Banhart, Damien Rice or Joanna Newsom, the sad and thoughtful touch of Nick Drake's universe has bore its influence.
I can only think of Tim Buckley, his graceful and doomed contemporary in the States as having etched a similar deep course in the new Folk scene.
If you haven't heard Drake before, this may not be the place to start -although I don't know how it could hurt- since those three albums, which he released while still alive, might offer you a better sense of what he was after and a beautiful example of the integrity and development of each of those song-cycles.
Gathered finally thirty years after his death, the songs included here, as different as they may be to the Drake-refined ear, still represent a stronger set than most contemporary Folk offerings.
Sadness well expressed, with the poetic depth found here, could never cease to speak to any age. Sadness turns beauty, when you are as talented as Nick Drake.
Enter this album expecting to be awed by its quiet marvel, and let your heart be educated by his timeless spirit.

We didn't think it would happen, but here it is - another new compilation of recordings by Nick Drake, that troubled and marvelously talented young man who in his short career nevertheless managed to produce three of the most heartbreakingly beautiful albums ever made. You can't go wrong with any of them, as the Amazon critic above says, but this disc is still no less essential. It's seemingly meant to replace Time of No Reply - which was the previous offering of gems-from-the-vault - and so there's still a little overlap here. Here's the breakdown for those wondering what's really 'new':

"Joey," "Clothes of Sand," "Thoughts of Mary Jane," "Rider on the Wheel," "Black-Eyed Dog" and "Voices" (aka Voice from the Mountain) are the same tracks from ToNR, remastered and spruced up as much as possible.

"Hanging on a Star," "Mayfair" and "River Man" are solo takes with just Nick and his guitar, previously unissued. "Three Hours" is also an alternate take from the studio, this time with congas and flute. The differences in those last two give a fresh new twist, especially "River Man" which had only been released with full strings.

(I Was Made to Love) "Magic" and "Time of No Reply" itself have had orchestral backings freshly recorded, working from the original charts made in the late 60s (and in the case of ToNR never used). Again, a wonderful new twist.

"Tow the Line" is apparently a new discovery and has never been released anywhere. It could have easily belonged on Pink Moon - it's another pretty solo song and shares the same not-really-fatalistic mood. On its own it's not exactly spectacular, but of course it's noteworthy as the only Drake song heretofore unknown. Well, as far as we know.

So there it is, although I'm probably not the only one who had to have it sight-unseen just because everything the man put to tape was stellar. I'm not sure why a couple of the ToNR tracks were still left off here; they could have easily been added to MTLM (which runs a little under 42 minutes as it is), and now there are a mere couple recordings that are unfairly fading into the realm of the out-of-print. But that can't be helped now, so all I can do is encourage anyone who hasn't discovered this wonderful artist yet to rectify the situation whenever possible. Nick's is a catalogue that's as fresh, vital and exquisitely beautiful today as it was 30 years ago, and Made to Love Magic stands as the (almost) perfect finish. Buy, marvel and wonder.