Nick Drake's final collection (1972,Hannibal) was recorded in two nights, with only Drake and producer in attendence. You can almost sense there was little production to be needed, though. Drake creeps through these eleven songs so casually the songs could be successive takes. Drake knew his lyrics, arrangements, intonations, and pauses throughout. He was ready.Drake's underrated guitar skills shine throughout this album. Playing lead and rhythm simultaneously like Robert Johnsons WAY distant cousin. Maybe some unseen pickin principles criss crossed some currents somewhere linking north england and south Mississippi. Apart from some very sparse piano throughout, Drake's solo guitar is the only instrumentation used here, and it works, well. The loose, minstrel styled arrangements fit Drake's warbly croon well, and neither note or lyric trample in the others path.Turn the corner and head for home. Parasite is a centerpice, the shaking metronome picking sneaks up and down the fretboard, too slow to be real. Small scale alienation had set in, and Drake was too weak to fight back, he only pacified the demon through song, trying through desperate catharsis to run as far as he could. This is where that road led. "You may see me... the parasite of this town". Time to run some more. But you never away from me "the parasite of your sky" Free Rides takes the express from fragile summer evenigs to cold autumn winds wet from rain and watercolored skies. Then it will be time to leave, not until. From the Morning rises like it's lyrics, the sun shining again when the trials have all ended, and there is no more tribulation. Whatever was about to happen didnt really matter. Drake knew the outcome long before this. He just wasnt ready to tell anyone until now.