The title Family Tree takes on an added resonance: It is Drake's musical lineage that shines most brightly here, not his genetics. It's also why this album may speak more deeply for and about Drake than any of his earlier, now-classic releases; with its collage of influences, originals, spoken-word poetry, images of his darkness and his light, Family Tree transcends the age-crusted mythos of Nick Drake the Enigma and gives us a brief but lucky glimpse of simply Nick Drake.  Full text...

Hotly-anticipated collection of home-recorded rarities by the doomed bard of upper-class Britfolk.  Full text...

What's most fascinating about the contents of Family Tree, however, is that they belie so many of the myths surrounding the creator of Pink Moon.  Full text...

Bringing together instrumental exercises, blues covers, and music-hall ditties written and recorded by Drake's mother Molly, Family Tree aims to explain the musical traditions that informed Drake's elegant melancholy.  Full text...

It is a collection of dead ends that pull in contradictory directions—the closet-rollicking “Black Mountain Blues,” the stentorian pastoral “Blossom.”  Full text...

A Portrait of the Folk Singer As a Young Man.  Full text...

And only hard-core enthusiasts or biographers could have much interest in the cameos from Drake's mother or the family-assisted version of Mozart's "Kegelstatt Trio," which shows Drake could play clarinet.  Full text...