Pink Moon [VINYL]

Excellent album from one of the uks greatest singer song writers

The Nick Drake vinyl version of Pink Moon turned up on time and was well packed from musicMagpie at a very good price with a download voucher. I have always admired Nick and his music and wanted this album for a long time. I took the shrink wrap off and was not disappointed. It is a heavy weight vinyl version with a facsimile sleeve of the original and even comes with a copy of an old Island inner sleeve. The record label is a copy of the pink rim Island label. A lot of time has been taken to reproduce the original packaging and they have done a good job. It obviously has a bar code on the back of the sleeve which would not have been there but any one who remembers the pink rim Island label will smile when they open the record. The original Pink Moon vinyl record now goes for hundreds of pounds which I am not prepared to pay ! I sat down with the dog at my feet with a drink and lowered the cartridge on my Linn Sondek LP12 on to the record. It sounded great and with no pops or crackles and I played it and went in to a dream. It is so long since I last heard this album and frankly it's not my favourite Nick Drake record but it has a stark stripped down sound which is quite moving. I have collected records for over thirty years and have an original Pink Rim Island Bryter Layter which I found for two pounds in between top of the pops albums in the 90's . I actually had to put it back in the plie of records again to find it again such was the thrill ! I could only compare the sound against that but Pink Moon measured up very well on the Back to Black version. This was a lovely time capsule and any one seeking the record should be happy . Any vinyl collector could spot it is not original fairly quickly but that's not the point. The joy of playing a crisp new vinyl record never goes away and I would certainly consider buying further copies of reissues of rare records if they were as good as this! I believe the masters still exist for Pink Moon so a good job can be done . I think for Bryter Layter a sound engineer from the recording still had some tapes and as for For Five Leaves Left they don't exist any more so maybe those releases require a bit more caution when buying to find the best versions on vinyl. As for Pink Moon I don't think you will find much better than this. I would recommend any one listening to Nick Drake for the first time to play Bryter Layter first which has some lovely orchestration on it and beautiful songs compared to Pink Moon which is much rawer. It is a shame Nick Drake was never fully recognisied in his life time but if you look back to 1973 his music was squashed by some heavy weight artists such as David Bowie , Bob Marley coming in to form and with Punk just round the corner a lot of things were going to change. While people love music some one will always love Nick as his music is timeless in a way. Anyway I have blabbed enough just buy the damn thing and raise a toast to Nick. Gone but never forgotten.

Another wonderful album from Nick Drake

great album from the late great nick drake

Didn't want to fork out for the big box version just wanted a copy of the vinyl as never bought it first time round so found it from an Amazon seller for £16! Arrived today, 180g vinyl, original palm tree Island label and good card inner sleeve with a photo of an authentic blue Island inner bag on each side. There was NO VOUCHER for an MP3 download as advertised? Was I unlucky or is it not included in this version? The sleeve is very well made and a facsimile of the original gatefold with mercifully no attempt made to make it look 41 years old! Now this may be IMPORTANT to some. This vinyl is PRESSED IN THE USA, it is NOT pressed in Germany which the vinyl in the Big Box Edition is? Please someone who bought that version comment was it pressed in Germany? This was a subject of debate on various forums as the German pressing is deemed superior and people were worried the quality would be reduced if pressed in USA, Gabrielle Drake said it would be exactly the same pressing but it seems not!? The pressings not bad, some dimples and the arm of the deck goes right and left as the record plays so can't be quite concentric. I compared it with a 1972 Island pressing I borrowed and it sounded about the same to my ears anyway, I know its subjective. I can only wonder if the German pressing is better, however I'm happy with my purchase for £16 of a beautiful classic Nick Drake Album without all the superfluous, to me, bits of paper, posters and 35mm of precious shelf space taken up and shall order the Vinyl of Bryter Layter released 10 June without the expensive big box (pressed in the USA?) and then Five Leaves Left. Nick Drake was and still is a genius. To reiterate though there is no MP3 download and its the pressed in USA version!

Nick Drake's final album.Its stark ,pared back from the glossy instrumentation on the preceding album "Bryer Later" but there's something here to do with the immediacy of just the acoustic guitar and Nick's vocal delivery.Did he know it was going to be his last album?It kind of feels like that, which makes it all the more poignant.

Simply put, this is some of the most intimate and haunting music I've ever heard in my life. It is also one of my favorite albums of all time. I had read an article in 1990 which mentioned one of Nick Drake's songs and piqued my interest in his music. For some reason his name stuck in my head for a few years even though I wasn't able to find any of his CD's in stores at the time. I found "Pink Moon" in a store in 1995 and bought it immediately, excited that I finally found something by Nick Drake. This CD runs about a half hour, and the night that I bought it I literally listened to this album at least 6 or 7 times for what ended up being hours. I just couldn't get over it; his voice so hushed yet so expressive, the otherwordly tunings on his guitar, the impressive and powerful finger picking style evident on each song...it still amazes me today. I really believed at the time (and was probably right) that this was one of the best kept secrets in music, and until the Volkswagon commercial which featured the song "Pink Moon", it was. Nick Drake had struggled with mental illness and depression in the years preceding this release and the lyrics, desperate and depressing as they can be, give an insight into his mind that apparently no one close to him was able to achieve. The surprise is that the end of the album features the more optimistic "From The Morning", which Nick's parents chose to quote on his gravestone. "Pink Moon", an introspective, all acoustic album with no instrumental backing aside from a brief piano solo in the title track, didn't help Drake's already suffering record sales, and his depression increased until his death from an overdose of anti-depressants in 1974. His biography made me more aware of why this album didn't sell more copies until recently, explaining that with bands like Roxy Music dominating the airwaves at the time, "Pink Moon" was not exactly going to take the world by storm and seemed decidedly uncommercial. The fact that this was Nick Drake's final album (out of only three he released) is a sad fact, but thank God this was made. My CD collection is nearing 2,000 and this album has remained one of my top five favorites for the past ten years. Definitely a "desert island" disc.

This is a fantastic record and arrived in pristine condition! It’s a fave 👌🏻

Si tenemos que hablar del servicio de amazon, que tal vez sea lo que más le importa a la gente que anda viendo las opiniones, tan solo aclarar que ha sido excelente. Tardó tres días en llegarme, tal y como estaba previsto (a pesar de que siempre me lo habían traído un día antes de la fecha estimada... me tenían mal acostumbrado) muy bien empaquetado y en perfectas condiciones. La edición, simplemente una maravilla. Es un gustazo ver la letra de las canciones escrita por el propio Nick Drake, por no hablar del póster, que agradará con creces a cualquier fan del compositor. La caja del vinilo es magnífica, ya no sólo porque, sin duda, contenga con creces la mejor portada de Nick, sino porque la nueva edición respeta a la original y muestra una calidad impresionante. El vinilo de 180 gr suena también de lujo, gustándome más esta remasterización que la vista anteriormente en "Bryter Layter". El disco en cuanto a contenido supone la despedida final del cantante. A diferencia de sus dos anteriores trabajos, tan sólo contamos con la guitarra y voz de Drake para conmover, enamorar y transmitir tanto con tan poco. Las letras alcanzan aquí el rango más poético del guitarrista a través de una temática triste y reflexiva. Todo para dotar a este disco de una fragilidad sin igual. Poderoso, cautivador y único. Sobran adjetivos para catalogar la que considero la obra maestra del compositor y un obligado indiscutible en cualquier top de la música contemporánea. Mires por donde lo mires, Nick Drake supone el mayor grado de belleza que la música puede alcanzar. Y es en "Pink Moon" en donde se despide. Su final ya lo sabemos todos. Mucho más que recomendable. Imprescindible, y esta edición se agradece mucho.

Fantastic album well worth it.

Listened 2 this 2day ,got the same RUSH as the first time(JVC QL-7TT,Sumiko Blackbird MC,Sony TA 86B PRE 4phono head,ADCOM GFP-750 PRE,,Direct , ADCOM 555AMP,,PSB STRATUS GOLD spks and record and stylus LAST TREATMENT ... I asked Tony who owned RECORDS ON WHEELS(old school bus used 2 sell vinyl) what was interesting and he slapped this in my hand. Listening @ home I fell in love with this talent ...SO ETHEREAL it blew my sox off ..hot damn ! THIS 180gm slab o vinyl cannot be faulted as beautiful as ever,no ,snap.crackle or pop...nice LP . 2BAD THEY DID NOT COVER THIS GEM WITH A DECENT SLEEVE,CHEAP FINISHED PAPER,GOOD JOB I JUST BOUGHT SOME MOFI... COVER DISTORTED FROM SHRINK WRAPPED 2 TIGHT...2 ME ITS A GOOD BUY REGARDLESS............ addendum: I missed the free download that was included...BUT ... I just read the sticker on the front carefully ... MEA CULPA ... free download of album in four formats ... 2Cool !!! change my recommendation 2 REALLY GOOD BUY !