Nick Drake - 'River Man' (Universal-Island)
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
The temptation is to simply give this single stars, and not write anything at all. But there probably wouldn't be enough stars. Whilst the motive behind posthumous releases is always slightly questionable, any chance to give 'River Man' another spin will never be a waste of four and a half minutes.
Imagine having the luxury of releasing something this astoundingly gorgeous as your second ever single. Despite it being from Nick's debut (the equally haunting 'Five Leaves Left' from 1969), due to a massive collective cock-up in which the entire world decided to completely ignore one of its greatest talents for decades (only really waking up to Drake's quiet wizardry after his untimely death), this is the first time it will ever have the chance to bother a chart countdown. In an ideal world, all the other singles this week would stop in their tracks and stare at this one until its uneasy beauty had finished its majestic course before getting together to decide to award it an honorary number-one spot. It really is that good.
In an ideal world, however, Nick Drake would also have been noticed in his own time, released more than the mere three fleeting masterpieces he got round to recording, and would still be walking this earth. But then, you can't have everything. Just be happy you've got this.
Artists in this article: Nick Drake
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