As the first song with a vocal on Nick Drake's second album, "Bryter Layter" (it's preceded only by the instrumental title track), "Hazey Jane II" is crucial to establishing the mood of what many believe to be the singer-songwriter's finest record. "Hazey Jane II" is uncommonly upbeat and peppy for a Drake tune, courtesy of the chugging rhythm and the jaunty brass (arranged by Robert Kirby), with a faint soul-rock feel tinging the folk-rock. As is so often the case in Drake's work, though, the words espouse melancholy enigma, delivered in a rushed, soft manner, as if he's ruminating rather than singing. What will happen, he wonders, when the world gets so crowded that you can't look out the window in the morning: an allusion, perhaps, to the growing depression that would eventually help take Drake's life. The slightly downbeat melody of the main verse, though, is offset by the latter part of the bridge, which ends on a rather uplifting tandem of Drake's buzzing low vocal and energetic horn fanfares. In effect this performance is almost Nick Drake backed by Fairport Convention, as then- Fairport members Dave Pegg (bass), Dave Mattacks (drums), and Richard Thompson (lead guitar) comprise the backup musicians (other than the horn players). Thompson weaves in some particularly effective, very slightly distorted psychedelic lines, as if to hint at the disturbed state of mind behind Drake's meditations. Confusingly, "Hazey Jane II" is an entirely different song than a track that appears later on Bryter Later, "Hazey Jane I," though both songs do refer to a Jane in the lyric. In "Hazey Jane II," though, Hazey Jane is only referred to once in the final verse, and in keeping with the song's actual hazy nature, her role in the tune and in the narrator's life is unclear.
(Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com)