Bryter Layter

Soft and acoustic album from the 1970. A little on the depressing side, and come to find out, this was actually a very depressed artist who only lived a few years longer than this album. There is no known video footage of him, and his music became more popular after his death.

I've never heard of Nick Drake before, and from my research, I'm not alone apparently. This guy suffered from depression for a number of years, and he would hardly ever do interviews or play shows, so upon release, each of his records only sold a few thousand copies. He remained a well kept secret until after his death, which is unfortunate. It is too bad he couldn't have lived to see more people appreciate his music. I have no idea what to classify Nick's style of music as. It is listed as folk. It may have its roots in folk, but the backing band is strongly vested in jazz, so it is a weird mishmash of both genres, with some blues mixed in. The music is really good, and I learned that a lot of the backing music was provided by members of Fairport Convention. Nick's guitar playing is amazing, but I find that a few songs have some really weird time signatures that are kind of abrasive in that they make my brain itch trying to fathom them. I also don't particularly enjoy Nick's voice, and find that you may need a degree in philosophy to understand his lyrics. Critics say that this album deals heavily with themes of depression, but I didn't hear it, unless it was in that song where he sang about wanting to be a signpost? Overall, excellent music, but it just didn't hit with me. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't like it. I will probably never seek this music out again, but have to give props where they are due. Favourite songs: Northern Sky, Fly, Introduction, Bryter Layter, Sunday Least favourite songs: One of These Things First, At the Chime of a City Clock, Hazey Jane II 2/5

We get it. You're depressed.

Ça devrait être pour moi. On sent que ça a été influent (Belle & Sebastian, par exemple) mais je trouve ça juste profondément chiant. Rien n'en ressort pour moi. Peut être à cause de la voix sans beaucoup d'inflexion.

Tried a couple of times to listen to this but I just never found myself in the mood for it. I'm not into folk music and this album sounded like all the stuff I usually dislike. Highlights were: Hazey Jane II Northern Sky

Mixing could be better on the Introduction — I always hate when an album makes me worry that my headphones have shorted out. Nick Drake's voice comes through as clear as ever — perhaps everything else was secondary. I'm pretty okay with this album because we're thankfully past peak troubadour, otherwise I would have definitely harbored resentment.

I have no idea what this was but I really enjoyed it. I just thought it was a really interesting record all around and something that I don't usually listen to genre-wise. I did think it was a little boring at times but it was well rounded.

I wish I could tell Nick Drake to fuck off and die, but sadly he's already dead. I'll give him a point for dying before subjecting us to any more of his nonsense. The background music is ok but the singing is only BARELY in tune and overall it just gives me creep vibes. An extra point for the backing band. 2/5.

It was boring, I'm seventeen so it probably adds to that, the musical composition felt so lovely and nostalgic though but I think it most likely has to do with the fact it was released in like the 70s. It felt like I was in the country side as if I was reliving the days of my youth listening to my great grandparent's soundtrack, but I despised the countryside, everything was so hot and green.

Muutamat muut ukot on tehnyt vastaavaa kamaa paremmin, ainakin omasta mielestä. Ei missään tapauksessa huono ja hetken joutu kakkosen ja kolmosen välillä arpomaan, mutta jätetään nyt siihen huonompaan kategoriaan.

No jaah. Ei mitään erikoista nähtävää täällä

Lyrically diverse but inane, and tonally monotone stories as interesting as reading the ingredients list on a bottle of head and shoulders shampoo. The singer mumbles his way through the tracks such that he's on his 15th jack and coke of the night , nick almost seems uninterested in singing as much as he makes me uninterested in listing. may have been ground breaking for the time but more effort was exerted by myself trying to stay awake than he was making me feel. Not likely to listen to again best track was my snoring.

Don’t have much to say about this. It was fine. I guess it was a little too mellow for me. Favorite song: “At The Chime Of A City Clock”.

The album is entirely unremarkable. I did not hate it. I did not love it. It was just there. I suppose better than 2 not really a 3. I will round down.

Boooooring

Folk-pop bastante pesado. Un 2.

This is my 2nd Nick Drake album. I liked this one a lil better than the first one. I'm shocked that this one came out before pink moon because this album sounds more complete to me. Some good tunes to vibe with on here but nothing more. Driving music 4/10

Uninspiring music.

ei varsinaisesti inhota, mutta onpas hissimusiikkia (huilu...). ilman jazzia olisi parempi.

Something you might expect to hear in a coffee shop. Easy listening, but nothing special. I will probably forget that I ever listened to it.

p208. 1970. 2.5 stars. Perfectly acceptable background listening, with no redeeming features. There is a reason this didn't sell when it came out, and that reason is there are no standout tracks. It's the perfect background music for a million hipster bars. It's the aural equivalent of porridge.

I found it quite dull and winey.

2.5. Nice but not into this voice.

Nein

Can't feel it.

The album is as pleasant as boring. I can not find an attribute to be included in this list.

Didnt finish, too slow and boring

Such a painful listen - so folky with mediocre singing and droning on and on. 4/10.

Sound a lot like the other Nick Drake albums…. Which is a good thing. 2.5/5

Bored. Slow paced, mostly samey sounding the entire album..

ok , i guess

Listening to this was like running on a treadmill- I kept checking to see if it was almost over

This is the second album from folk singer-songwriter Nick Drake. He wrote and sang every song on the album, with backing music provided by other musicians. Nick isn't the greatest singer, but he wrote some great songs and the production came out beautifully. The tracks all have a similar theme of being quiet, gentle, and relaxing. A listener's reaction to this album depends on their mood, and for me I enjoyed the album, but considered the music background noise for my work. None of the tracks really jumped out to me as being a masterpiece.

Disco agradable si se le pone atención porque no la retiene por sí solo. Arreglos decentes aunque termina sintiéndose plano. 2.5 estrellas que bajan a dos porque seguramente mañana no recordaré este álbum.

A little more straightforward than the later Nick Drake album I had a week ago. Fine folky guitar with some nice string arrangements.

Didn't dislike it but quite tedious and not for me

I only gave it one listen. Not really for me. For soft listening, I prefer Karen Carpenter.

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: None Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Can’t point to any one thing I particularly didn’t care for, it just never clicked for me. I mostly liked Five Leaves After too so idk what happened here

A talented singer songwriter, but I just can't get into it and find it rather boring.

I actually really wanted to like this one. But never did it for me.

Inocuo.

1 / 5 stars

It was okay, I think Pink Moon was way better.

Viel Gitarre, Künstler ist mir nicht bekannt, nicht mein Stil, ist mir zu wenig rockig

The best of this album IMO: - Poor Boy I think I don't like folk music. 1.9/5

it was guitar and wild while playing halo

Didn't enjoy it

70s folk rock, some interesting tunes but at times drifted into inoffensive background noise almost to the point of elevator music. Two stars on the strength of some of the more interesting songs.

I found it a bit boring

The same as every other Nick Drake album we've had on the group. Some nice bits and pieces but will never think to revisit.

Folk-pop bastante pesado.

Too sleepy for me, sorry Nick

boring

Beetje te veel van hetzelfde voor mij. De stem begint me al snel te vervelen..

Een beetje teveel Nick Drake na elkaar. Vandaag niet voor in de stemming.

Very pleasant and very boring

idrk what kind of music this is but i don’t like it … 2.5

Not my cup of tea.

It was okay.

OK, most of the songs sounded REALLY similar.

sin más me lo puse para estudiar

Relaxing acoustic guitar (and sometimes a flute). Good background music.

meh.

Good instrumentals, meh lyrics

Nice album but not really my cup of tea

Soft sad

Okay. Slow pace, not my style.

Yawn-fest. The universe owes me those 39 minutes back.

Reminds me of Woodkid. Low voice. Difficult to understand at times.

meh

Interesting that his work only found a rather wide audience after his death. Seems this album title is a bit of a prognostic.

Too jazzy for my taste

i didn't hate this!

Forgot it was even playing it was so boring

I got bored so fast, couldn't go through

again hate this guy

Don’t like it

mid

This really isn't for me. Entirety forgettable, I liked some of the horns used early in the album but uh please, no more of this.

I am not a fan of folk music, and this album coming straight after Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds probably didn't do it any favors. I can listen to this in the background, but honestly, it just does nothing for me.

I love the second song a lot. good kitchen music. a little too slow and mellow of a vibe for me. 6/10

Positive feelings.

даже и не знаю что сказать. Не понятно ничего. Прежде всего почему это здесь.

не моє..

Absolute snoozefest, defintely not for me, too folky

Niks voor mij dit album

Actively disliked this. Hated the jazz piano, sax, strings arrangements.

holy boring.

I'm guessing whoever compiled this list listened to the first song on this album, figured the rest was as beautiful (if not more), then figured it was good enough to be included

It's interesting that this is now the second album I've gotten from a folk artist that has a lot of overdubbed instruments the artist didn't approve of. There are some songs, especially Hazey Jane I, where it barely even sounds like the overdubbing fits. It makes me want to listen through all the overdubbing stuff and try to hear it how he originally wanted it. If I had the choice of leaving this album unrated and just writing this review, I'd do that instead. It's so far removed from Nick Drake that it's hard to even say it's his album, let alone something to hear before you die.

Más o menos

I have to be honest I found this incredibly boring. Nothing stood out to me at all.

Äärimmäisen tylsä levy. Hienosti tehtyä hissimusiikkia, ei muuta. Munatonta vinkunaa. Toivottavasti ei tule Nick Drakea lisää listalla. Ongelma on ennen muuta lauluäänen ärsyttävyys ja ponnettomuus ja se, että musa ei vaan lähde lentoon, ei sitten millään. Kun Mr Drake avaa suunsa ensimmäisen kerran niin toivoo levyn loppuvan pian. Tylsä ja raskas kuuntelukokemus. Huono. 1/5

nicht meins 1/5

Varför har denna grabben flera album i listan? Aldrig hört talas om innan och jag förstår verkligen inte musiken.. det är bara.. musik.. forgettable

Really not my bag

Boring

English folk + Burt Bacharach = 1

Who...? Who ever it is can't even put his shoes on.

It's the same as Leaves, just slightly different.

Overproduced and boring, his voice doesn't do anything for me.

This is all so pleasantly dull. Coffee house music that you need 5 shots of espresso to not slip into a coma listening to this. Joy! I look forward to being bored listening to his other 2 albums. What a Treat! 1

Chill songs but not really exciting to me.

There are a lot of great albums from 1971, but this is clearly not one of them. 1 star or F+.

Nice

Not a fan.

I didn’t listen to it

This was kind of grating. Honestly stopped at the 3rd song.

es fehlt was tot langweilig alles gleich

Unpopular opinion: Nick Drake is a dime store Dylan. I know hipsters love the guy...but hipsters like a lot of awful music. Would I listen to again? Nope. And there's 2 more Nick Drake albums on this list that I'll need to endure...

Tää oli aika hissimusiikkia. Ei jäänyt yhtikäs mitään mieleen.

I hate giving this 1 star but I just wasn’t interested at all.

Can't believe the number of depressing, boring musicians whose music apparently only made this list because the musician tragically killed themselves. 3 albums from this guy? Come on.

Not really my thing, this 70's acoustic pop. Reminds me of Cups and Cakes by Spinal Tap.

Singer /Songwriters seemed to be a dime a dozen in the 70’s. And, quite frankly, I can’t stand most of them. It’s just some whiny dude whining about how lonely & depressed he is cause he can’t get laid. Boo hoo. And to top it all off I can’t stand Nick Drake’s voice. The instrumentals were nice though.

This album is pretty boring. There are very few catchy hooks to grab your ears, but it would be good for a nap. Snoozer.

Yawn

I hate folk

Unmemorable

ok background sound

Music is good. Voice is blah and not good.

Over the years, I've heard of Nick Drake, but never actually heard any music, not knowingly at least. So, I'm sure what my expectations were, but the record flat out boring. There's no real dynamics to any of the songs, which actually makes it tough to get through.

This album is fucking horrible, makes me want to scratch my eyes out. How the hell did this make the top 250 of Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Poor Boy was kinda catchy. Northern Sky is ingrained from hearing before but holy shit the rest…

positives: + the album was short + i didnt listen to the whole thing negatives: - the genre and vibe was not a bit of me - the piano and violin really overstimulated me to the point where I could only listen to half the album - it felt like it was someones secondary school music project my favourite song: N/A

1/10 nick drake is gay

Not for me. 1/5

Melancholy and the infinite sadness. Don’t listen to this if you wanna pick me up.

Chambers Folk consisting of a) A depressed man singing indifferentiable sounding melancholic, nostalgic songs b) while strumming an acoustic guitar to a pretty but generic easy-listening background.

i am not a big fan of nick drake's vocals, it is too unpredictable for me and makes me feel weird for some reason. this album was his last one with other musicians. i really like the instrumental songs or extended sections within the song without him singing. his music feels too boring though, especially a whole album of this boredom. i can listen to one or two songs of nick drake's but then i get sick of it.

Etwas verstaubt. Weiss nicht wie das auf der Liste gelandet ist.

Learn how to spell, mister!

Too sad or slow, not interesting

Oh man, when I read that a criticism of this list was how Anglo-American dominated it was, I made up some half-hearted excuse about Western music. Because that's where the mass appeal is and even if they borrowed and, in many cases, stole the music from Black artists, they were the ones who sold the millions of albums. But this album is representative of the nonsense about Anglo-American bias. Introduction Hazey Jane 2 At the Chime of a City Clock One of These Things First Haley Jane 1 Bryter Layter Fly Poor Boy Northern Sky Sunday

Great musician. Incredibly boring album and singer

Warning: Zero joy found within. This guy needs a jolt of caffeine or something. My Gawd it felt like these songs dragged on forever. I will never understand why many singer-songwriters in the late 1960’s, early 1970s decided to use Ren Faire voices. It is an instant turnoff. Further points deducted if you bring in flutes. I started off pretty much resigned that this was going to be a two star album. But the more I listened to it the more I wanted it to end, so I may not even give it that many.

Ugh. Slow and steady actually lost the race.

Slow azz hippy shiiiii

ugh. i despise saxaphone in songs. very very boring. 1.5/5

If I wanted to drown myself in the bathtub, I'd put this album on ... to keep me underwater.

The guitar and backing music is rhythmic and smooth. The singers voice doesn't work for me at all though sadly. Ofc this is purely a personal opinion but its to whiney for me, couldn't listen through the entire album.

Where to start? Awful. Dreadful voice. Dreadful songs. I will never listen to this again.

Did not listen

gejowe 1/5

Started out ok. I like the piano music. I don't like the tone of his voice. I had to keep skipping the songs. Bryter Layter song did not have lyrics - this one was better. lol. FLY was ok. The music just doesn't match the voice.

ugh, no thank you!

Very Easy Listening. Very laid back...

Meh

For my second attempt following jazz fusion I didn’t think it could go worse but it did. Uninspiring vocals and lyrics.

Nah, boring

Shite

Well that was painfully wishy-washy and pointless.

Not my thing.

Made me miss Autobahn

ugg. didn't enjoy very much boring

Listened to the top song from this album. Didn’t like. Sounds like he doesn’t trust himself singing.

Another miss.

Didn't mind this but not much else to say about it. Was jollier than expected but can't imagine I would choose to listen to it again. I find singer-songwriters generally very self-indulgent and this too seems to fit that mold.

JT wanna be.

Melancholie in langweiligstem 70er Folk Gewand

Really enjoyed the introduction track and the instrumentals, but personally not a fan of their voice. It comes off as a bit shrill to me.

This album desperately wants me to feel something but I don’t. I made the mistake of reading Alex’s review on Pink Floyd and now don’t feel qualified to write anything. This is basically elevator music. 1970s Bon Iver (feat Dave Matthews) Is this this sort of album in which knowing something about the songwriter would change my perspective on it? Not that it matters, I literally don't have the capacity to care about any more strangers.

Nice arrangements but artist cannot sing and guitar is slightly out of tune.

With Lucille, Little Richard screams rock into existence, writhing with danger, the unknown, the magic. Folk rock takes rock and strips it, scrapping the danger, the unknown, the magic, leaving only the instruments and none of the spirit. What's the point of folk rock? Why are there saxophones? I don't get it. For the record, Bryter Layter is not a good name. It's not clever.

This is absolutely not an album you need to hear before you die. I'm shocked at the quality of these 1001 albums so far. So much tedious acoustic drivel. Pop stars pretending to be men of the earth. Neil Young, I'm looking at you. Anyway, this is more of that nostalgia for a time before penicillin

It was rlly boring, not my style of music and I don’t think he has a great singing voice

My first experience with the music of Nick Drake. Mello acoustic guitars with orchestral accompaniment and equally mello vocals combine to create a mediocre sound. Sometimes-thoughful lyrics were not enough to imbue value. I think this ablum belongs to a genre that I've missed or avoided, as I cannot name it.

Nick drake is ok

Rubbish

Yawn. I’m already tired this morning and this almost put me to sleep.

Singer sings the same song while playing an acoustic guitar over different variations of elevator music behind him. *saves review to notes for every other singer-songwriter album in this exercise*

Tostón(PSP)

not my bag

Good guitar and pianos. Not my cup of tea though

No.

Herkkää. Jazzahtavaa.

no preconceived notions whatsoever. sounds like john prine if you take away his world weariness, but also if john prine made me sleep. soooo boring. the words are sophomoric, which is undnerstandabe if you know that he was 22 when this came out. around a fourth is instrumental so i guess it's good that the arrangements are clean. i tried really hard to like it, but it just bores me so. no tracks stand out, all just seem to bleed into the next one.

Sometimes risk aversion can bite you on the ass. By stripping away anything offensive to his delicacy--like, er, strong beats or hooks--Drake’s gentle rhythms, which hold up from start to finish, take on an insistent prettiness. Throw in his bizarrely mannered vocals and nursery rhyme lyrics (not necessarily a bad thing) and it’s well-conceived as a whole. Unfortunately, I find insistent prettiness annoying. I wanted the strings and horns in ‘At the Chime of a City Clock’ to stop being so sheepish, and to tell John Cale that his harpsichord on ‘Fly’ was like too much exposition in a costume drama. Lots of scene-setting. Little action.

Chato demais!

This is not for me.

Terrible

Not a fan

I didn't feel like this was anything special.

Really sad backstory did not make for a very interesting album. It was just a little bit whatever.

fantastic discovery thanks Nick Drake