Five Leaves Left

about this album

Five Leaves Left is the debut studio album by English folk musician Nick Drake. It was recorded between 1968 and 1969 and released in 1969 by record label Island. Among his various backing musicians, Drake was accompanied by Richard Thompson, at that time with Fairport Convention and Danny Thompson of The Pentangle. Robert Kirby, a friend of Drake's from his youth, arranged the string instruments for several tracks while Harry Robinson arranged the strings for "River Man". The title of the album is said to be a reference to the old Rizla cigarette papers packet, which used to contain a printed note near the end saying "Only five leaves left". Drake died five years after recording the album. The album regularly appears on lists of the best albums of all time. The album was ranked number 283 on Rolling Stone magazine's original 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". NME ranked it at number 258 on their 2013 list of "NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It is said that Drake felt frustrated at the lack of commercial success his music initially gathered, considering the help he had on his debut record. Besides fine production from Joe Boyd and assistance from folks like Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson and his unrelated bass counterpart from Pentangle, Danny Thompson, Drake also recruited school friend Robert Kirby to create most of the just-right string and wind arrangements. His own performance itself steered a careful balance between too-easy acce

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