Daily Archives: May 22, 2015

My iPod #491: Nick Drake – Harvest Breed

Before closing his third album on a note emphasising a positive outlook on life, Nick Drake provides us with “Harvest Breed”, a track which – though only lasting a minute and a half and containing four different sentences – describes a person in need of help, is not able to find anyone who can provide it, and enjoys the beautiful earth one last time before supposedly accepting his mortality. A rather eerie song, which would have brought a morbid end to Pink Moon had “From the Morning” not directly followed it.

Despite its foreboding subject matter, “Harvest Breed” is another typically entrancing performance by Drake. Consisting only of his acoustic guitar playing a circular riff which he simultaneously sings along too with his calm, soothing vocal, the song sounds just as vulnerable and empty as the other ten that accompany. Maybe even more so as it is the shortest one on the album. But it is the one that is the most haunting, especially considering Drake’s own depression and his sad death.