Nick Drake's Family Tree

Nick Drake is a posthumously famous English musician from the 1960s who died tragically before he became well-known. Although there's a fair bit of ambiguity surrounding his death, suicide seems to be the general consensus. Nick's music touches on themes of death and melancholy, so perhaps it comes as no great surprise that such a talented young artist would one day be consumed by his own cynical view towards life. You only have to look at the names of some of his more famous tracks ('Parasite' being a atypical of Nick's voyeurism) to see the sheltered individual within.

Sheltered, yes, but also immensely talented. Albums Five Leaves Left and Pink Moon are incredibly robust, beautiful albums that seem synonymous with waking up in the morning with the sun shining on your face. In comparison, Bryter Layter is a little more heavily produced, which in my personal opinion detracts a little from Drake's individual flare. It's far more intimate to see Drake starting out in Leaves, or alone with a guitar and a piano in Pink Moon than it is to imagine him in a proper recording studio, which Bryter seems to do.

Nevertheless, of all of Drake's recordings, the most compassionate and, dare I say it, interesting, is Family Tree, a 2007 compilation of home recordings taped before Drake's stunning debut. There are a few reasons why Family Tree is a fantastic album from start to finish. Fans of lo-fidelity music will be in their element with Drake's sound here; the album is scratchy and raspy, spinning like an old vinyl. This is naturally due to the quality of the recording systems that Drake had at the time. However, today, lo-fi has become something that a lot of artists deliberately attempt in order to make their sound seem more rustic. Family Tree is there relevant today, failing to sound turgid or aged in any respect.

Drake covers famous songs on Family Tree; he duets with his sister; there are little piano-led ditties by Drake's mother. It's all very quaint and twee, but it truly is fascinating to see Drake's influences as well as original material from this early period in one compilation. Family Tree is the sound of an artist finding himself; but after a couple of listens, it soon becomes apparent that Drake always knew what he was doing.