Nick Drake - Second Grace
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Track List: Second Grace
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Album Details: Second Grace
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Pro Reviews: Second Grace
| EXPERT RATING: From AMG Reviews Second Grace originally appeared as a label-less vinyl bootleg of indeterminate origin. To both the pleasure and aggravation of the kind of collectors dedicated enough to buy this stuff to begin with, an upgraded CD with the same title and sleeve appeared on Mirrorglass Music not too long after the LP version had made the rounds. And it is a significant upgrade, significant enough to force you to resignedly buy it all over again even if you have the LP, mainly because there are ten additional tracks on the CD version. There's still virtually no information about the music aside from the song titles, even though there are a couple of nice photos of Drake on the sleeve. So you'll probably have to look in on posts from Drake's online discussion groups to get the lowdown on these 25 tracks, none of which came out on his official releases, though about half of them are available on other bootlegs. Even if you have those other bootlegs and feel the need to pick this up to complete your collection of what's available, this is pretty marginal, both in terms of musical quality and the variable fidelity (some of it's obviously from home recordings). As for what train spotters will find most interesting, the best tracks include a different (apparently home-recorded) version of "Mayfair"; an acoustic "Day Is Done" (certainly one of the set's highlights); an alternate of "Parasite"; "Leaving Me Behind," a typically meditative song not on any of his regular releases, though the version here is murkily recorded; a somewhat distantly miced home demo of "Saturday Sun," with only piano accompaniment; two nice, brief guitar instrumentals that sound like studio outtakes, so much better is their fidelity than most of their surroundings; a one-minute "Saturday Sun" (titled "Place to Be" on the vinyl version) in relatively decent sound; and a very nice and reasonably clear acoustic "Hazy Jane," the best song here. As for what's on the CD that's not on the LP, there are additional, brief versions of "Mayfair," "Joey," "Fly," and "Saturday Sun"; an acoustic "Three Hours"; a different version of "Strange Meeting No. II" than the one on Time of No Reply; and three songs that were on the Tanworth in Arden bootleg, but are here presented in "much better sound quality," according to the back sleeve. This was the best you could do for hearing this material when this CD appeared in 2001. The hope among Drake fans was that some or all of it would come out on official release with far superior sound quality, but that eventuality remained uncertain. - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide |
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Nick Drake Biography
A singular talent who passed almost unnoticed during his brief lifetime, Nick Drake produced several albums of chilling, somber beauty. With hindsight, these have come to be recognized as peak achievements of both the British folk-rock scene and the ...Full Nick Drake Biography
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