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156 of 157 found the following review helpful:
 A troubled cure for a troubled mind May 07, 2005
By Alfonso Mangione
"Loves the three Rs: Readin', Ritin', and Reviewin'"
When my good friend Phil recommended this CD to me, he helpfully provided a product advisory. "I'm warning you," Phil emailed. "It's really melancholy stuff, so make sure you don't have any sharp objects lying around when you listen to it."
Like any good Irishman, I love mournful music, and I have a particular weakness for suicidal musicians, especially the ones that died too early to suck. So Phil's words of warning were like catnip to me. Move over Joy Division, Nirvana, and Elliott Smith; make room in the Case Logic for some Nick Drake.
I soon found that Phil was right--and wrong.
On one hand, "Five Leaves Left" feels like the saddest CD ever recorded. You can't fake these emotions; every poignant lyric, every aching guitar chord, and every weeping cello proclaim that this is the voice of a troubled and self-critical soul. Nick Drake died of an overdose at the age of 26; oddly enough, of his three albums, this first one sounds most like a suicide note.
Granted, there's some debate among his fans as to whether his death was indeed a suicide, whether the overdose was accidental or deliberate. On one hand, he OD'd on antidepressants, even though barbituates were available, and he didn't leave a note. On the other hand, he'd already written "Fruit Tree."
Has any musician penned a more convincing suicide note? I doubt it. "Safe in your place deep in the earth/That's when they'll know what you were truly worth." I'm sorry, Ian Curtis--"Closer" may come close, but nothing's more depressing than that. And unlike, say, Elliott Smith, whose pop sensibilities often contrasted his morbid lyrics, every note of this song amplifies its mournfulness.
Still, this album is comforting in its melancholia--it doesn't leave you feeling suicidal, because you listen to it and know there's someone out there who has felt your feelings and given voice to your thoughts. In fact, it's perfect music to listen to at sunset on a Sunday night, when the day and the weekend are over and you haven't accomplished anything and you're facing another 40 hour week of work-related drudgery. If you're thinking of picking up a guitar and hiring a string arranger and writing a song about those emotions, don't bother--you won't do any better than "Day is Done," a 2-and-a-half-minute gem that perfectly encapsulates those feelings.
So cheer up, all you sad people--there's a man out there who understood you, even though he never met you. I wish he'd found a way out of the depression, found a way to stick around, write new songs, and keep his old songs from being used in Volkswagon commercials; they say dying young's a great career move, but you miss out on a lot, and when you're dead you can't stop people from doing silly things with your back catalog. Also, even though people romanticize depression and drug overdoses, they really aren't all that fun, especially for those left behind. But Nick left us with some great music, and we can at least be thankful for that. "Don't you worry," he sang, to us, and to himself. "They'll stand and stare when you're gone." Amen, brother.
64 of 66 found the following review helpful:
"Time has told me you're a rare, rare find.." Sep 05, 2002
By spiral_mind
Whether you know it or not, you've heard Nick Drake before. Maybe it's from his other albums, maybe it's from that VW commercial, maybe it's just the sound of that quiet bleakness we all feel when sadness comes to the door and doesn't want to leave. This music lives with all of us. It exists in quiet lonely nights, chilly autumn evenings, and the muted grey of the world when it's been raining all day. During his too-short musical career, Nick used music to look at those little feelings we all have and give them an exquisitely beautiful voice.Ok, fine, I'll start talking like a normal person now. I realize those comments seem a little silly. It's easy enough to describe how this music sounds, but it's not as easy to convey the emotional impact it might have. Everything about this 40-minute jewel is beautifully composed, elegantly performed and topped off with Nick's simple understated lyrics, which read as well as poetry. His voice and guitar (pretty tricky guitar work, too) are backed up by changing accompaniments: some electric guitar and bass at times, some flute, some quiet conga percussion at others, and most often a smooth string section providing just the right bittersweet background. It's quiet folk melancholy with an addicting quality that can't really be explained. Not everything here is quite as sad as "Way to Blue" or the eerily prophetic "Fruit Tree," either. "Saturday Sun" adds some relatively upbeat jazzy piano, although it remains low-key to the end. "Time Has Told Me" is uplifting in its timeless simplicity. "Man in a Shed" is a wistful boy-girl tune, but the theme is as un-cliched and downright humble as I've ever heard it. Five Leaves Left was Nick's first album, and overall the most realized - he took over a year putting it together after all. If you don't like the sound of strings and flutes you'll probably want to hear the later Pink Moon instead, which is basically just Nick and his guitar. Either way, just make sure you check him out somehow. Any Drake offering is a treasure not to be missed.
28 of 29 found the following review helpful:
Deceptively Simple Jun 11, 2000
Before reading an article on Nick Drake in Entertainment Weekly I'd never heard of him or his music. The article praised his brilliant musical talent and I was intrigued enough by the album synopses to by a CD. When I first listened to 'Five Leaves Left' I wasn't swept away. But something about it made me immediately listen to it a second time. Upon listening to it again I disovered depths to it that I didn't catch the first time. And each subsequent listening has revealed more and more depth. 'Man in a Shed' is one of the most buoyant love songs I've ever heard. The lively guitar picking is remarkable. 'Saturday Sun' perfectly captures the mood of waking up slowly on Saturday morning. Sure, there are other artists who have silken voices and beautiful guitar playing but Nick Drake has something more. Maybe it's the melancholy, maybe it's the brief moments of optimism, but something about his music pulls you in and makes it hard for you to want to leave. It's a shame that his music wasn't really appreciated in his time but sometimes it takes a distance of years for a genius to really receive his due.
20 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Who Is This Nick Drake? Dec 02, 1999
Nick Drake, it seems, was a gentle soul with a genuine gift who labored under a crippling depression before dying at an early age. The brevity of his career, his cult-like status, and the circumstances surrounding his short, sad life could be seen as providing fertile ground for a lot of romantic mythologizing. But really, all that's needed to tell the story of Nick Drake is his music I guess. I bought FIVE LEAVES LEFT never having heard a note of Nick's music, intrigued by what I'd read. The first thing that struck me was his voice. It has a hollow, whispery quality to it, but with an underlying richness and loose, easy phrasing. The songs are gentle and melancholy but never self-concious or cloying. The conviction of Nick's delivery gives them an emotional weight, once you are drawn in by the voice. The fact that he recorded it when he was only twenty years old is remarkable. "Time Has Told Me" has a very relaxed almost country feel to it and is a fine love song born out of the pain of experience. "River Man" is almost certainly the stand out of the entire album. It weaves a hypnotic spell and although I'd be hard pressed to say what it's ABOUT, I can say that like all great pieces of music it is an event which makes you FEEL something, even if you're not sure what it is. "Cello Song" and "Three Hours" have the strongest folk flavor to them and feature some fine finger-style guitar work from the singer. The strings on "Way To Blue", "Day Is Done" and others give the songs a strong melancholy feel which lightens up a little towards the end of the collection. "The Thoughts Of Mary Jane" is more wistful and "Man In A Shed" is a little on the jazzy side. "Fruit Tree" seems particularly prescient, dealing as it does with artists whose work bears fruit after their passing, echoed by the fact that Nick Drake didn't sell a great many records while he was alive and his music has gained it's reputation virtually by word of mouth. "Saturday Sun" closes out the set with a gospely blues feel. I'd have to say that going by this one album, everything I read about Nick Drake is true. I did find a strong emotional identification with Nick through the songs which far from being merely the result of romantic idealization of a tragic, dead figure, is actually the whole basis of a listeners appreciation to his art. You really feel for the guy and some of the music is emotionally pretty heavy, but he makes such beauty out of the pain and never asks us to wallow in it, only appreciate it for what it is. I heard Nick Drake's music described as a private little oasis you visit every so often and that seems pretty apt. It also seems to be true that this music IS addictive. I can hardly wait to hear the other three.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Quintessential Drake Jun 25, 1999
This is the Nick Drake album I find myself listening to the most. Although I think Pink Moon is probably one of the greatest records of all time and endlessly fascinating it can be a hard listen emotionally. Five Leaves Left is an extremely accomplished debut and is the one record that best represents who Nick Drake was and why he is so revered. Every song on here is wonderful and the instrumentation perfectly matches Nick's quiet vocal style. How can you really describe this record? If you've heard this record you will know what I mean. There is a quiet strength to his music that at first listen can almost seem anemic. This understated quality is so rare with music today. He is not screaming for the listener's attention but rather inviting you into a world of his own. And once you have entered this world that he has created it is truly seeing the power of music.
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