Various Artists
elsie and jack and nick drake — sculpting from drake, volume one
elsieandjack

For reasons having equally to do with its content's breathtaking intimacy as well as its author's untimely drug-overdose suicide, the songbook of Nick Drake is one of the few musical bodies of work that begs to be left alone.

Which isn't to say anyone has written a song that should never be covered. Rather, an artist doing so needs to have the talent and respect necessary to do justice to Drake's poignant folk — to which the music of acts like Belle and Sebastian and Elliott Smith has often been compared. And while elsie and jack and nick drake's liner notes indicate plenty of respect, the collection seems to lack talent on enough occasions that this compilation from Grand Rapids, Mich. record label elsie and jack needs only to be purchased by those inclined to enjoy both Drake and four-track recorder space rock, whose devotees largely round out this album's roster.

With six of the 10 tracks coming from Pink Moon, Drake's minimalist swan song is a bit over-represented, which is likely the case both because its songs are Drake's best while also being easiest to play.

Electroscope is one of those space rock bands whose "songs" don't always resemble what most folks call "music." Thankfully, the group has diverted from that format here, rendering a lush, reverby take on "Things Behind the Sun," the closing track from Pink Moon.

While the song begins with the group's trademark arrhythmic, treated guitars, "Things Behind the Sun" begins to resemble the original after about three-and-a-half minutes of noodling, which is pretty and all, but about a minute too long. Once angel-voiced Gayle Harrison starts singing Drake's exquisite lyrics, though, Electroscope's studio wankery becomes a moot point. The last five minutes or so of the song are the album's most soul-stirring moments, nearly matching Drake in emotional intensity while not really sounding anything like him. If you were into English group Flying Saucer Attack in the early '90s, you'll love this.

Au Revoir Borealis comes close with Stephanie Halpert's crooning vocals and gorgeous piano on "Fruit Tree," from Drake's debut album, Five Leaves Left. Sounding a lot like a hushed Fiona Apple fronting a mellow Cocteau Twins (whose Simon Raymonde appears elsewhere on the album), this Michigan group may be onto something.

Archer Prewitt, of The Sea and Cake fame, sounds nice, but a bit too much like Drake, though the additional instrumentation he gives "Parasite" works well enough. Meanwhile the singer from Flashpapr has the unfortunate curse of sounding like a slacker version of Darius Rucker, that guy from Hootie and the Blowfish. Similar mishandlings largely round out the album.

But most of these missteps at least have their moments, and some are downright listenable. Which is something that can't be said for the album's two real clunkers, one of which — Ray Speedway's cover of "Pink Moon" — falls inoffensively at the end of the album.

The only real disruptive, irritating track is Warn Defaver's sorry treatment of "Which Will," off of Pink Moon. Warn was a lot better when he was known as Warren Defaver, the driving force behind the group His Name Is Alive. That band's albums Home is in Your Head and Mouth by Mouth helped define the lonely, beautiful 4AD records sound of the early '90s and, frankly, some of Defaver's work along those lines would be a much more welcome addition to a Drake tribute than what he's come up with.

But instead, Defaver comes across as an alcoholic lead singer of a mediocre Pavement cover band gone solo. In typical pretentious art-rock fashion, Defaver has listed his address in the album's liner notes as, "united states of america".

But Defaver's moronic address gag perfectly encapsulates the biggest criticism of this album. Its lowercase title, elsie and jack and nick drake — sculpting from drake, volume one, is ridiculously pretentious, yet the musicians on the album for the most part lack the talent that pretense would hopefully imply. What we're left with instead is a few songs — Prewitt's, Electroscope's, The Autumns' and Au Revoir Borealis' — that hit or come close to hitting the mark.

Those four tracks alone make the album worth picking up for any Drake fan who might be hip to the un-Drake-like space rock sound. It's all too unfortunate that the rest of the album is composed of tunes that make you yearn for the originals. This might have been better off as an EP.

— Eric Wittmershaus (ericw at flakmag dot com)