A name like Skullcrusher can make one's mind think, "This has to be a thrash metal band". Nope not this Skullcrusher. Helen Ballentine's blissfully melancholy music project combines organic acoustic elements from guitars and banjos and blends in soft synthetic moments of horns, pads, and leads that result in an innovative singer/songwriter swoon. "A Song For Nick Drake" is clearly dedicated to the 60's/70's acoustic singer Nick Drake, who's acoustic influence has been seen in the works of Beck, The Black Crowes, and Kate Bush. "A Song For Nick Drake" has no other affiliation with Nick other than the title (or so she will have you believe). The song itself delves into a first person account of loneliness, vague realizations, and summer rain. No chorus to be found in this 3 verse mountain climb, Ballentine's beautiful voice whispers a verse to introduce her pondersome solitude at a bookstore. The second verse finds itself "On a train to Fleetwood" where Helen is met by no one at the station. This is the part where a single tear falls down your cheek. The final verse has a sense of satisfaction.
"I walked home alone
With your song in my head
Finally understanding something
In what you said
In the moment
How the rain smelled
And I know now"
The somber start climaxes into this third verse ever so sweetly. Ballentine's vocals start echoing across the stereo image as she sings "In the moment..." in a way that mirrors how thoughts repeat in your head back and forth as you start to "understand something". My Ozarkian heart strings were ripped as she lamented about her memory of "How the rain smelled". There is something so specific about that smell that lends itself to a sense of sympathy that Skullcrusher beautifully illustrates here.
After listening to the song over and over I was trying to figure out who the song is about. Assuming it is about Nick Drake would be too obvious with it being in the title. The third verse shows my faux pas effervescently and hits me in the head with it. Nick Drake's song "Rain" similarly finds tiny moments to sing about. I believe it is this song that is stuck in her head. Whatever meaning she finds in Drake's "Rain" it means a lot because this song is painfully gorgeous. The climactic ending soars with layers and layers of guitars, banjos, and synthesizers thus plucking one final tear from my eye.
