My relationship with Pink Moon

There’s a satisfying simplicity to albums consisting of solo acoustic guitar and voice. It’s a spare, basic palette that gives the impression of the artist standing purely by the quality of their craft. At the same time, so much dynamism and personality can be expressed through a human voice, especially when supported by a guitar’s range & versatility in weaving musical backdrops.

Pink Moon by Nick Drake is such an album, one that was instantly an all-time favorite for me. Some music becomes a part of you over time, but other music feels like it was already a part of you before you heard it. For me, Pink Moon is probably the strongest example of this. The feelings of the album had already formed in my soul long ago, made of early and tender memories. When I heard the songs for the first time, those feelings emerged, less as a revelation and more as a matter of course: “Ah, here it is”.

It’s a nostalgia, akin to returning to a long-left childhood home. I get dull flashes of places that lit up my mind in early childhood: the textures of buildings that existed back then but not now, trips to large public places like airports, early impressions of forests. Listening to the album, I can gather the memories that dredge up this way and associate the feelings with new memories in my life, giving me access to a deep channel of continuity in my soul.

The infinite gentleness of Nick Drake’s voice and the warmth of open, drop-tuned guitar figures lower your guard and allow you to enter into the moods of each song. I would not be surprised if nostalgia and childhood memories were a common component of other listeners’ experience of Pink Moon, though with different specifics. For myself, I am grateful to Nick Drake for making such an album, that could reconnect me to an old part of myself.

Have you listened to Pink Moon? Did it evoke nostalgia for you? Is there another album that felt familiar to you on first listen? Let me know your thoughts at my Ctrl-C email: gome ​@ ​ctrl-c.club.