Nick Drake Albums Ranked

Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work has gradually achieved wider notice and recognition. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and a student at the University of Cambridge. He released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums—Bryter Layter and Pink Moon. Neither sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release. His reluctance to perform live, or be interviewed, contributed to his lack of commercial success. There is no known video footage of the adult Drake; he was only ever captured in still photographs and in home footage from his childhood. Here are all of Nick Drake’s albums ranked.

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6. Way To Blue (1994)

“Drake’s voice and several of his songs may remind you a little about Donovan in the late 1960s. His guitar playing is at once subtle and incredibly powerful, the same can be said about his voice which is both soft and expressive.”

5. Time Of No Reply (1987)

“”Time of no Reply” is the most beautiful album I have heard since Ms. Ndegeocello’s “Weather” album. All of the songs featured on this album were written & composed by the late Nick Drake, yet the way MFM plays the guitar on these songs, he truly makes them his own. Overall, I would say that this is a perfectly mellow album that borders on melancholy without crossing into the realm of being overbearingly sad or depressing.”

4. Fruit Tree: The Complete Recorded Works (1979)

“Fruit Tree tells the sonic tale of a hugely talented, sensitive musician, from his days as a wide-eyed hopeful/student making his way into the folk club circuit, to the fallen son who fell prey to that most common of artistic predators, depression. From the country to the city, from hope to despair and dreams and days, to shadows and light, you will find it all here. And all in his own words.”

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3. Bryter Layter (1971)

“This songwriter really knows how to make beautiful songs. Bryter Layter carries a sentiment of happiness and hope, and Nick Drake here seems comfortable with the production around him. This is another masterful work on Nick’s perfect discography.”

2. Five Leaves Left (1969)

“Enter this album, and you will be welcomed in a field of flowers, trees, and rivers. The loneliest night would come, and go, and in the end, alone still, you will feel happy and calm. One of my favorite folk albums of all time. Every song is brilliantly written and a story for itself. It’s somewhere in between the grandiose Bryter Layter and the instrumentally minimalistic Pink Moon and combines the best of both if you ask me.”

1. Pink Moon (1972)

“Beautiful, but dark. This is an uncomfortable listen in places, as Drake’s fate is becoming all too obvious in tracks like Parasite, but any collection of his songs are like gold dust. An exhausted and depressed genius makes one last effort, to show the world his endless talent.”