Unthanks - Diversions Vol 4 –The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 3 / 7 / 2017

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Review

With the release of the ‘Family Tree’ compilation album, Gabrielle Drake assumed she has closed the box on her late brother Nick’s legacy. This album tidied up a number of frequently bootlegged home recordings and was intended to be the final word on Nick Drake’s legacy – three studio albums, a compilation of unreleased tracks and, then, the home recordings made before he entered a professional studio for the first time. Contained within, however, was an intriguing suggestion that the Drake musical legacy was broader than imagined. We knew that, whatever Nick’s problems with his mental health, he came from a loving and supportive family home. Indeed, the home recordings had been so widely bootlegged mainly because his parents had sent fans who visited them away with taped copies. But what we didn’t know was that Nick wasn’t the only songwriter in his family, and that Nick’s early forays into songwriting were encouraged by a mother who also wrote and recorded her own music. The ‘Family Tree’ compilation contained a mother and son duet and also ‘Poor Mum’, recorded by Molly in direct response to her son’s ‘Poor Boy’. The interest in these recordings persuaded Gabrielle to sanction the release of one more record from her family’s archives – the remaining home recordings of Molly Drake. These recordings were sparse, with just vocal and piano, but they proved tantalising on two levels. Firstly, they were clearly an influence on her son’s music – there is a similar clarity of melody and phrasing, and the same sense of refined melancholy. Whether Nick knew it or not, he clearly had more in common with his mother than any of his contemporaries on the late 60s folk-rock scene. Secondly, there is the sense of a glimpse into a previously unrecognised part of British life. Molly Drake was, to the casual observer, essentially a 1950's housewife. Yet, were in not for Nick’s untimely demise and posthumous fame, you could creditably say that she lived the more interesting life. Born and brought up in Burma, she and her sister were forced to flee the country when it was invaded by Japan (separating Molly from her new husband for several years) and ended up as radio stars. Though she ultimately resettled in a sleepy Midlands village, she continued to write songs at the piano, which were enthusiastically recorded by her husband. Had she been born two decades later, she may have aspired towards fame herself. Fifty years later, and another family affair (the Unthanks – two sisters and a husband) have imagined that alternative reality where Molly Drake’s humble home demos were given the full studio treatment. The band are at pains to stress that they didn’t see it as their job to ‘finish’ the recordings – there is no assumption that these songs were intended as anything more than a form of private self-expression. However, there is no doubt that their sensitive treatments bring the songs to life – much as Robert Kirby’s string arrangements offered so much to the music of Molly’s son. With a smaller set-up (mainly just piano, strings and voices) than found on last year’s spectacular ‘Mount The Air’, these songs bring out all of the Unthanks’ best qualities. There is no doubt, however, that the band intended the original songs to be the stars of the show. As if to ram home that point, the songs are frequently interspersed by Gabrielle Drake’s recitals of her mother’s poems. Rather than a distraction from the music, these elevate the album to a celebration. Gabrielle, a successful actress who for many years (possibly until the reissues of his three studio albums in the summer of 2000) was the more famous sibling, transports you – at least that is how it feels – into the garden of 1950s England. A country still recovering from war, wistful for what has been lost but looking ahead to what seemed a brighter future. This is more than a period piece – like her son, Molly Drake used specific imagery in a way that was both sharply direct but easy to emphasise with. Nothing here has lost its meaning with time. The point the Unthanks are making with this album is that these are songs worthy of being appreciated not as a ‘clue’ to Nick Drake, but as fine songs in their own right. It’s a point they have made with power and humility.

Track Listing:-

1 What Can a Song Do to You?
2 Dream Your Dreams
3 Martha
4 How Wild the Wind Blows
5 Little Weaver Bird
6 Bird In the Blue
7 The Road to the Stars
8 Set Me Free
9 Woods in May
10 I Remember
11 Never Pine for an Old Love
12 The Shell
13 Soft Shelled Crabs
14 Do You Ever Remember?
15 The First Day

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Unt
http://www.the-unthanks.com/
https://twitter.com/theunthanks

Label Links:-

http://cadizmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CADIZMUSIC
http://cadizmusic.co.uk/