Nick Drake - Pink Moon [180g, Gatefold] (LP) Vinyl

Pink Moon is the third and final studio album by the English singer and guitarist Nick Drake, released by Island Records in the United Kingdom on 25 February 1972. It was the only one of his three studio albums to be issued in North America during his lifetime. This is the Island reissue, catalogue number 006025 17456976, pressed on 180 gram vinyl and presented in a reproduction gatefold sleeve.

The Recording

Drake had decided before the sessions that the record would be as plain as possible, free of the guest musicians who had filled out Bryter Layter. In his only published interview, given to Jerry Gilbert of Sounds in March 1971, he described the idea of "just doing something with John Wood, the engineer at Sound Techniques". The album was recorded at Sound Techniques in London on 30 and 31 October 1971 with only Drake and Wood present, the pair arriving at the studio around 11pm and quietly working through half the songs on each of the two nights. There is no backing band: the record is Drake's voice and acoustic guitar throughout, the only other instrumentation being a single piano melody overdubbed onto the title track. The eleven songs run to 28 minutes and 22 seconds, appreciably shorter and sparser than either of his earlier albums.

Artwork

Keith Morris, who had photographed Drake for the cover of Five Leaves Left, was commissioned again, but his pictures went unused. Island's creative director Annie Sullivan recalled that Drake could convey little beyond the fact that "he wanted a pink moon", and the label instead chose a surrealist painting by Michael Trevithick, a friend of Drake's sister Gabrielle. One of Morris's photographs of Drake appears inside the gatefold, with typography by C.C.S. Associates.

Reception and Legacy

Pink Moon drew more attention from the UK music press than Drake's first two albums, though most reviews were brief and the stripped-back sound divided opinion. Writing in Hi-Fi News & Record Review in May 1972, Fred Dellar graded the album A and noted that Drake "employs his deliciously smokey voice in making these intimate, late-night sounds that I find myself playing time and time again". The album sold poorly in Drake's lifetime, and its standing rose only long afterwards. Legacy reviews have been overwhelmingly favourable, and the use of the title track in Volkswagen's "Milky Way" advertisement of November 1999 lifted American sales of the album from 6,000 copies to 74,000 in 2000, reaching 329,000 by 2004. It was certified Gold in the United Kingdom by the BPI in 2013.

This Pressing

The gatefold sleeve reproduces the original 1972 artwork, with the full lyrics and credits printed across the inside spread and Keith Morris's photograph of Drake facing them. The record carries a pink rim Island label credited "Produced and engineered by John Wood, A Witchseason Production", with all tracks written by Nick Drake and published by Warlock Music Ltd. It is a single LP, manufactured in the EU.

Tracklist

Side One

1. Pink Moon (2:06)
2. Place to Be (2:43)
3. Road (2:02)
4. Which Will (2:58)
5. Horn (1:23)
6. Things Behind the Sun (3:57)

Side Two

1. Know (2:26)
2. Parasite (3:36)
3. Free Ride (3:06)
4. Harvest Breed (1:37)
5. From the Morning (2:30)