Pink Moon by Nick Drake

Pink Moon, Nick Drake's third and final album, came out on Island on February 25, 1972, and it's about as bare as records get. John Wood produced it, and there's no band at all: only Drake's hushed voice and his acoustic guitar, plus one piano line dubbed onto the title track.

What you get is spare and haunting, a shadow of a record that sounds like it was made in the half-light. The guitar picking is intricate and dazzling, the songs are stark, and the title track rings out like a quiet omen. It sold poorly and critics were split, and when it was done Drake stepped away from performing and recording and retreated to his parents' house in rural Warwickshire. He died in 1974. The record's reputation only grew, and it is now counted among the finest albums of the decade.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.