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Five Leaves Left | 
 enlarge | Artist: Nick Drake
Label: Umvd Import
Category: Music
Buy New: $18.98
New (50) Used (20) from $5.29
Rating:  87 reviews
Sales Rank: 21865
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.4
MPN: 842915
UPC: 042284291521
EAN: 0042284291521
ASIN: B000026FOA
Release Date: May 6, 2003
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Promotion: Save $5.00 when you spend $25.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout. Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Time Has Told Me | | • | River Man | | • | Three Hours | | • | Way To Blue | | • | Day Is Done | | • | 'Cello Song | | • | The Thoughts Of Mary Jane | | • | Man In A Shed | | • | Fruit Tree | | • | Saturday Sun |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
There's not a single dud in the trilogy of albums that singer/songwriter Nick Drake released during his all-too-short career. And 1968's Five Leaves Left--his first album--is certainly no exception. Drake's sensitive guitar work and sensitive vocals are backed by the baroque sounds of a chamber string group, and the platter's lyrics show maturity well beyond the age of their 20-year-old creator. Sparser than its follow-up, the jazzy Bryter Layter, but less tortured than Drake's dark final chapter, Pink Moon, Five Leaves Left is a classic British folk disc. Songs like "River Man," "The Thoughts of Mary Jane," and "Day Is Done" are among Drake's finest moments. Newcomers be forewarned: this music is as infectious as it is bleak, and a purchase of Drake's boxed set Fruit Tree might be a wise investment. --Jason Verlinde
Album Description
Reissue of the late British folk icon's 1969 debut album. Ten tracks. Island.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 82 more reviews...
 For Drake, Fame WAS but a Fruit Tree May 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pink Moon was dark as they come, but Five Leaves Left, despite others saying it is the most depressing of the three, or some other stuff, it's like an autumn morning. Or a dark night on the river. It's also longer, and features more than just the guitar. Nothing is as naked as Pink Moon, but Five Leaves Left is beautiful, and, if you have the ears, becomes apparent with the first seven seconds of The Thoughts of Mary Jane (though to me it seems about drugs).
Five Leaves Left takes me on a journey to the rivers, forests, star-filled sky, and sunsets (sometimes with a girl on my side, sometimes not). Drake's lyrics, as always, are filled with lyrics of hope , depression, life. Sometime, I really need to take a music based journey to the places that conjure in my mind. Really experience the music (actually, you all should, NOW). That's a testament that how, some music, can really be more than just a mere listen.
I think I would stop right now, because Five Leaves Left has been described just by that last paragraph. Man this review was crappy! While not as good as other albums, some albums, even if they aren't the greatest to exist, just cannot be said with justice (at least my attempt at it). Shows when you try to review albums you really just can't explain. Just. Listen.
9/10
 Nothing to Get Excited About March 19, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
This guy got passed me back in the day, even though I basically bought every album that came out back in the 60s and 70s. I was listening to sattelite radio and heard a cut from this one and I liked the moodish thing going on and the hint of drug influence in there somewhere, so I checked out a few websites on Nick Drake. His tragic story kind of hooked me so I bought this CD. Quite frankly I find this to be interesting, but not something I would recomend to everybody. The mood of depression stays so heavy that every song sounds the same and makes me feel like I am watching one of those pulse readouts in a hospital room, and it is a flatliner. I suppose that some people dig this mellowed out sort of "I wanna leave this world stuff" but I get enough of it quick. Drake's guitar work was a bit unique in it's time, but as many times as I try, I just can't quite get with this program. It is good to listen to and then take a nap.
Simply put: January 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
AMAZING. Drake is a musical genius. He speaks to the soul and speaks of truth. Speaks of life, speaks of death. All encompassing GOD.
 Don't miss him this time around December 4, 2007
As someone whose musical sensibilities were shaped in the 60's, I'm ashamed to say I didn't discover Nick Drake 'till 2000. Someone suggested I listen, and I bought 3 CDs within the week.
Listening to his music feels like I missed an artist whose music was as essential to his times as Joni Mitchell or Van Morrison. It feels impossible that his music escaped me at the time. If you've never heard him, take a listen. You won't regret it.
Just plain beautiful November 22, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Not quite as minimalist as Pink Moon, which is part of what makes it debatably Drake's best record, and certainly the first album to get. Incidentally, it's also his debut. The album is about as folksy as folksy gets: some of it is filtered through country ("Time Has Told Me"), other times through chamber music ("Day is Done"; "Cello Song"). The string arrangements are often quite captivating: they ruin "Way to Blue", at least for me; but give a lot of flavor to "Day is Done" and especially "Cello Song". Not to take credit away from Nick himself: his meditations on life, love, and loneliness are often fascinating ("Three Hours"; "The Thoughts of Mary Jane"). I'll admit it's a bit hard to understand Drake's quiet, mumbling diction, but even then sometimes it's nice just to sit back and let his soft baritone take you away (the hypnotic "Fruit Tree"). Bits of this ramble, sure ("River Man"; "Man in a Shed"), but all things considered this is a hell of an album. Oh, and if you liked Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, you'd be glad to know that "Saturday Sun" is comfortably close to that album's best moments. I don't think Bachman-Turner Overdrive could put out something anywhere near this. Do you?
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