Made To Love Magic

With only three "real" albums, then, you would think they would have sold brilliantly, but alas most people never get to hearing a single Nick Drake CD. Even the diehard fans have a lack of extra material without having to resort to crackling bootlegs - the posthumous "Time of No Reply" being the only other official release.

"Made to Love Magic" uses six tracks from Time of No Reply as is, with only remastering to improve them. This is unfortunate, as "Magic" is short at only 13 tracks (most less than three minutes long), and could have been improved with other rarities. But what of the "new" songs? Two ("River Man" and "Mayfair") are taken from a tape recorded by Drake's arranger, Robert Kirby in Cambridge, and from those, "Mayfair" really stands out. Worse recording quality than the "Time of No Reply" version, yes, but a much more exuberant and joyful version. Another two tracks are also taken from Time Of No Reply, but have been given the original orchestration intended for them. Of these, "Time of No Reply" is the best, and probably the standout track on this album; made lush and truly joyful by the new arrangement.

There is also an alternative version of "Three Hours" with respected percussionist Kwaahkuh Baah and an unknown flautist and a new version of "Hanging on a Star", which I feel has a better guitar track than the original but a rather thin vocal.

That leaves us with the brand new song, found on the tape of the final session. Entitled "Tow the Line", it is a quiet but propulsive track with a droning bass string giving a backbone to the music. It is beautiful, evoking "At the Chime of a City Clock" from "Bryter Layter" and is a fitting addition to the officially recognised canon of this British musical genius.

In summary then, if you've heard Nick Drake then you'll have bought this anyway, if not it's probably best to start with "Five Leaves Left", but if this catches your eye, definitely buy it - even a newcomer will be blown away by the raw beauty present on "Made to Love Magic".

The album kicks off in great style with Rider on the Wheel. This is a better version than the one on TONR, clean sounding guitar and Nick in great voice.

Magic is surprisingly good with the Hewson strings taken off, I say surprisingly because I've always thought of this as one of his weaker songs. It's scrubbed up nicely though.

River Man is of course a great great song but it really misses the string arrangement in my opinion. Without the orchestration there are a few uninteresting guitar passages.

Joey shows Nick at his finger picking best ... without the guitar mistake that the version on TONR had.

Thoughts of Mary Jane is also a revelation. It is much better than the FLL version in my opinion, which was not one of my favourite Nick songs.

Mayfair is also superior to the TONR track, much more joyous and better sound quality I think.

Hanging on a Star has better guitar work than the TONR version, but the vocal is rather strained in places. Maybe the key is slightly different to the other version ... I don't know if Nick used a capo but it might have proved useful on this one !

Three Hours is great but doesn't make the hair on the back of my neck stand up the way that the FLL track does. Probably something to do with the slightly inferior sound quality.

Which brings me to one of most favouritist Nick tracks ... Clothes of Sand. Wonderful guitar work, great melody and Nick in good form vocally. How this one never made it on to one of the three albums I will never know. It is a truly great love song.

Voices is good, but I wonder why the song title is different to TONR (Voice From The Mountain). The same applies to Magic (I Was Made To Love Magic).

Time of No Reply is a bit of a disappointment. On TONR the playing is electrifying, full of bite. It's the same here but unfortunately the strings really detract from the song. There isn't really any space for orchestration in the song, so the strings end of sort of burbling along underneath Nick's voice and guitar rather than filling in the gaps. I'll stick with the TONR track.

Black Eyed Dog has cleaned up nicely, it that's an appropriate word to use for such a terrifying song. Wonderful playing. Nick manages to make his acoustic sound almost Edge like in a way. Once heard never forgotten.

Tow The Line is a surprise in that Nick sounds so together in it, with some beautiful playing and that unmistakeable Nick feel. Unbelievable that they could get the name of the song wrong. Henceforth to me it shall be Toe The Line and I will brook no argument!

My daughter told me today that a song from this album was playing on local radio here in Aberdeen UK, and that the announcer said that the album was in the top 20. This could prove to be the hit record that Nick craved but never achieved in his lifetime. I hope that those three wonderful albums that he recorded all those years ago follow Magic into the charts. And how about Northern Sky as a hit single ... the greatest love song ever written.

OK, I'll settle for one of the greatest love songs ever written !