July 8, 1999
Boston lost one of its most distinctive voices last weekend when Mark Sandman of Morphine died on stage in Rome. They only released four albums, but in that time managed to carve out a secure place in the underground with their seductive, unique sound. While all are worth hearing, Cure For Pain is the perfect primer for those unfamiliar with Morphine's intriguing guitarless lineup - drums, saxophone and two-string slide bass combine in a heavy, groove-centered bluesy vamp that is much more than a gimmick.
Sandman's deep baritone and strangely tuned bass cry out as one mega-deep voice: I blasted "Buena" in the shop when testing the bass response of my new speakers. Dana Colley's baritone sax, often electronically treated to effectively become a backup singer, adds jazzy fills and colorful squeaks; Billy Conway is a ferociously restrained drummer from the Max Roach school of space-as-backbeat. "Head With Wings" shows how he tears the roof off the sucka, while "I'm Free Now" is evidence of his empathetic skill at buttressing Sandman's monstrous bass.
While their swinging, sinister sound is unmistakable, it would indeed be a gimmick were it not for Sandman's memorable songwriting. Alternately malevolent and self-deprecating, Leonard Cohen-style moodiness crossed with Tom Waits' narrative skill at depicting losers and barflys, Sandman shows a touching romanticism ("In Spite of Me"), adulterous kinkiness ("Thursday") and deft lyricism in "All Wrong" ("She had a smile that swerved all over the road").
Soaked in late-night melancholy and honed in smoky barrooms, Morpine's sound is effortlessly intelligent and sultry, perfect at 3:00am when the party is dying down and you're trying to convince the Ph.D in the leather pants to stay the night.
- Jared O'Connor
seductive sound