2. Nick DrakePink Moon
That Volkswagen commercial with ‘Pink Moon’ on it came out in 1999, and I remember being like, “Who’s this? Is it some new artist?” The person I was dating finally told me, “Oh yeah, that’s Nick Drake, he’s great”. And we wore that record out. I especially love how simple just a guitar and voice can be. Or how deceptively simple, because I know that when you pare a song down to just a guitar and voice and get into the Leonard Cohen or Nick Drake zone, the words have to be, I think, a little more. But I really love how he could transmit very strong emotion with very simple words and very simple accompaniment. It’s just a beautiful record. And another one where once I discovered it I was like, “Well, I wonder what’s he up to today”, only to discover he’s not around anymore. It’s so tragic, how his life ended in such a deeply sad way, but these songs are like holy objects now. His death colours how you hear Pink Moon.
