[COLL] – Poor Boy: Songs of Nick Drake

A tribute of sorts to the late Nick Drake. Songs cover a decent range of sounds, styles and closeness to original recordings. Most pieces in the first half are mid-tempo jazz arrangements that use, as a starting point, Drake’s folk/rock songs which are often jazzy to begin with. Second half is more varied (it quickly goes from happy to haunting) yet it is also closer to Drake’s work.
Most tracks are quite good. For closer covers: 7/11; Rock/upbeat jazz: 1/7/8/10/14; Sadder 2/13.

All times references = time remaining.
1. * (5:53) – Moderate tempo. Opens with very good acoustic guitar work similar to Drake’s. Electric guitar and female vocal harmonies replace cello – interesting touch. Pretty female lead vocals work well. Nice electronic background. 13s fade.
2. * (4:51) – Slow, jazzy. Strong female vocals dominate. Nice piano, light strings – instrumentation sparse in general. A sad, pretty song.
3. (2:18) – Piano-centric, mid-tempo instrumental. Jazzier than the original in a cool way, but missing the great lyrics. Original is Drake’s contribution to the Garden State soundtrack.
4. (7:46) – Piano-driven; extensive string and percussion elements fill song out. Strong, aggressive, emotive female vocals work quite well. Song is too long – breaks down into sparse, eccentric orchestration in the middle.
5. (2:37) – Simple, pretty, Irish-feeling through vocals (deep lead female w/ high female support in the background) and strings. Piano still leads, though less jazzy.
6. (14:04) – Nice instrumentation woven in with spacey, eclectic sound (through percussion, strings, etc.) 10:30 – 7:30 = pretty string section, then eclectic oboe section. Vocals at 5:10. Nice jazz instrumentation in the latter half.
7. * (6:11) – More up-tempo; Jazzy female vocals with backbone of typical piano melody and cool, distant, somewhat detached guitar work. Save for the vocals, it’s not too different from the jazzy original.
8. * (3:32) – Rock feel through strummed guitar and male lead vocals. Female backing vocals and acoustic guitar maintain a light, folk feel.
9. ( 4:09) – At first and at its core, very similar to original through vocals and guitar. Respiratory sound and other eerie sounds in background, along with vocals at times, make the song a unique interpretation.
10. * (3:36) Up-beat, up- tempo. Nice piano solo intro and work throughout. Female vocal harmonies. Take a very simple, straightforward and expand creatively on it. Clarinet solo at 2:00 instrumental for remainder of the song.
11. * (4:32) – Very close cover of a beautiful, haunting song. Raspier vocals work well. Might be better off playing the original, but this is a good version for variety.
12. (5:16) – Haunting, quiet, low, female vocals add a darker quality to the song. Guitar and drums provide simple foundation. Strings make the song weirder – crescendo and decrescendo, sometimes choking the vocals
13. * (9:32) – Long, low, slow, instrumental intro w/ guitar and sitar establishing a nice, soft bed that continues throughout. Male vocal duet works well. Long instrumental interlude in the middle – fairly repetitive, but still good. Vocals again at 1:20.
14. * (3:53) – Mike Dumovich again - bookend w/ first track. Slow, sparse, intimate song. Rock feel w/ electric guitar and vocals.