Album Retrospective: Nick Drake - Bryter Layter

Album Rating: A

The Machine in The Garden, is a famous piece of literary criticism written by Leo Marx and published in 1964 that controversially analyzed the effects of technology on our once pastoral culture.  Marx concluded that the once peaceful and productive lifestyle of finding a transcendental and romantic "oneness" with nature would be replaced with technological machines that programmed us into thinking, our minds would work as computer programs instead of working out of some creative free will and spirit, and our world would turn into a world of algorithms and formulas instead of a world of action and individualism.  Instead of proposing a middle ground between the machine and the garden, Marx proposed that people will either become the machine or become the garden: they will either become the person who lives life by an algorithm and computer generated formula or they will be the person who enjoys the transcendental, peaceful, underwhelming, and pastoral walk through nature.  Marx believed that we could either live our life in deep thought or have machines tell us what to think, we could either live a life of individualistic freedom or we could live a life of trivial technological obligations, and we could either live a life of fulfillment or we could live a life of "progression."  Marx's extended metaphor told us that we had to chose between the freedom and the prosperity of the garden or the obligatory progression of the machines.  For Marx, no middle ground existed.

Artist of the Day: Nick Drake

Nick Drake's story is a short and tragic one.  In his 26 years he managed to produce three classic records, but a feeling of dissatisfaction permeated his work.  An introvert, Drake fought depression for years, which was felt in certain parts of his music.  Sadly, he took his own life before he could write his fourth record.

While not truly appreciated in his own time, many artists have since described Drake's music as a great influence.  His first two records were bolder with more instruments playing a more complex sound.  However, his final and most celebrated record, Pink Moon, was a simple acoustic folk album.  Simple should be taken lightly here, as Drake managed to milk out some rather complex and intriguing songs from just his voice and guitar.  More prominent is the melancholy tone not featured strongly on his early work.  It is an intimate album, and one which the listener can truly feel the artist.

It is a tragedy that the young man never followed up his magnum opus. Forty years later, Drake's work has become greatly appreciated.  Reviewers and music lovers alike rate him very highly, and applaud his brilliant musicianship.  Nick Drake is a musical icon who simply never became appreciated in his time, and that is the true tragedy.