“The Endless Coloured Ways” is a collection of songs by the legendary singer/ songwriter, Nick Drake, performed and recorded by over 30 incredible artists from a range of different backgrounds, genres, age groups and audiences. From Fontaines D.C. to Guy Garvey, Aurora to Feist, and Self-Esteem and David Gray, each artist has offered their own incredible take on a timeless classic.
The latest track to be released from it is from former Czars singer-keyboardist John Grant. Drake’s music is inextricably associated with the acoustic guitar, so covers from keyboard players are particularly welcome as they reframe his music in new and interesting ways. Grant slows down the song to a crawl and slowly layers different synthesizer parts on top of each other. This time the feeling is more of impressionism than baroque (albeit impressionism via ambient.) Grant doesn’t start singing until over 90 seconds into the song, which gives you an idea of the pace since the original is around two and a half minutes.
“The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs Of Nick Drake” is out July 7th and here are two more songs from it: John Grant creates a baroque synth orchestra on his cover of “Day is Done,” “Day is Done” is one of Nick Drake‘s most sophisticated-sounding compositions from his debut album, “Five Leaves Left”. It consists of merely his voice, his complicated guitar pattern and an elaborate string part by arranger Robert Kirby. Though it’s a brief song, it has an air of neo baroque art music, due to the intricacies of the instrumentation.
Grant treats his voice with an echo. About three minutes in, some faux baroque keyboards kick in at a much faster tempo, and an elaborate keyboard orchestra places us in some kind of Tangerine Dream-meets-Switched on Bach space. That briefly drops out to Grant and just a single keyboard before many of the keyboards come back in to build to a climax.
The Fat Angel Sings 