It's a tribute pun intended to the remarkable rise in Nick
Drake's posthumous popularity that there are more Drake tribute albums
than there are actual albums by Nick Drake. The decision of classical
piano virtuoso Christopher O'Riley to devote an entire album to instrumental
piano interpretations of Drake's work is itself a testament to Drake's
crossover from cultdom to the mainstream. You don't see classical pianists,
after all, devoting entire tribute albums to Roy Harper, or Roky Erickson.
That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that giving Nick Drake a classical
treatment is a sensational idea, any more than it has been on most of
the occasions when there have been classical interpretations of rock and
pop artists' canons. Performing 14 of Drake's songs on a Hamburg Steinway
Concert Grand piano, O'Riley does give accomplished performances of material
taken not only from each of the three LPs Drake released during his lifetime,
but also from the one (Time of No Reply) assembled after Drake's death.
So much of what makes Drake's music memorable, however, was present not
only in his melodies, but also in his vocals, underrated guitar work,
and (at least before recording the spare Pink Moon) the way his arrangements
combined folk guitar, rock instrumentation, and classical orchestration.
Hearing the compositions done solely on piano does make one aware of the
inherent graceful musicality of Drake's writing not every popular
music composer of note can be adapted in this manner. Yet it's also a
little numbing and precious when heard in such an instrumentally limited
fashion for 65 minutes straight. And it's unclear exactly who will appreciate
this most many, and probably most, Drake fans aren't going to be
interested in hearing his tunes smoothed over into a piano recital format.
If it helps in any way to bring Drake's music, albeit minus its lyrics,
to an audience who doesn't listen to pop, so much the better. But Drake's
work does lose something in the translation to something notably more
polite in tone, somewhat in the way blues sounds when played as George
Winston piano instrumentals.
(by Richie Unterberger , All
Music Guide)
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