After two albums of tastefully orchestrated folk-pop, albeit some of the least demonstrative and most affecting around,
Drake
chose a radical change for what turned out to be his final album. Not even half-an-hour long, with 11 short songs and no more -- he famously remarked at the time that he simply had no more to record --
Pink Moon
more than anything else is the record that made
the cult figure he remains. Specifically,
is the bleakest of them all; that the likes of
Belle and Sebastian
are fans of
may be clear enough, but it's doubtful they could ever achieve the calm, focused anguish of this album, as harrowing as it is attractive. No side musicians or outside performers help this time around -- it's simply
and
alone on vocals, acoustic guitar, and a bit of piano, recorded by regular producer
Joe Boyd
but otherwise untouched by anyone else. The lead-off title track was eventually used in a Volkswagen commercial nearly 30 years later, giving him another renewed burst of appreciation -- one of life's many ironies, in that such an affecting song,
's softly keened singing and gentle strumming, could turn up in such a strange context. The remainder of the album follows the same general path, with
's elegant melancholia avoiding sounding pretentious in the least thanks to his continued embrace of simple, tender vocalizing. Meanwhile, the sheer majesty of his guitar playing -- consider the opening notes of
"Road"
or
"Parasite"
-- makes for a breathless wonder to behold. ~ Ned Raggett