1001 Albums Summary

Nick Drake only made three albums, and this is the middle one. They are all achingly sad and beautiful; as he says on here, 'I never felt magic as crazy as this.' No one has played guitar like Nick Drake before or since, but too often on this album, the intricacy and crispness of his playing are drowned out by the lush instrumentation and arrangements. However, there are several highlights: 'Northern Sky' has the most beautiful middle eight I have ever heard, and it breaks my heart every time I hear it. 'Hazey Jane II' evokes warm summer meadows. 'Fly' is perhaps one of the most overlooked songs in his oeuvre. On the whole, though, it's just too jazzy for my tastes and has too many instrumental pieces that sound like a soundtrack to some imaginary sixties romance movie. 'Pink Moon' was his next, last, and greatest album, stripping away the orchestration to just his voice and guitar, and it is all the better for it (albeit so, so bleak in lyrics and mood).

All I knew about The Zombies was that they were formed in St Albans (I used to live near there). I wasn't expecting this to be mainly piano-based but it's a pleasant enough slice of late 60s whimsy. It's a bit too clean and lacking an edge for my tastes. I can hear the influence of Pet Sounds Sounds in the harmonies and maybe some Rubber Soul as well, but it doesn't approach the level of either of those. Altogether it's OK. I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could.

This album started well enough. "Mannish Boy" (a response to Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man") has great energy and added a modern crunch to the old blues formula. But then the rest of the album is just a bit samey. The loose groove of "I Can't Be Satisfied" is my personal highlight because it steps away from the 12-bar-blues formula for something a bit different. But by the end of the album I couldn't take any more of that harmonica. I was begging for it to stop.

U2's big AMERICA album. Somehow I had Rattle & Hum and Achtung Baby but never got around to this one. It's absurdly front-loaded with all the hits that turned the band into the world's biggest band (for a while) so side B (as it was) is rather overshadowed. But it's OK. In general, I roll my eyes at Bono but he plays the charismatic poet at the front of the juggernaut well enough. I was most impressed with The Edge's guitar work - chiming, percussive, minimalist yet instantly iconic. I am also struck by how inconspicuous Adam Clayton is as a bassist - he always stays out of the way of the song. Him hiding behind the rest of the band on the cover is the perfect metaphor for his style.

One of the very best.