Editorial Reviews
Yes
Music Review:
Music Review
The Genius of Ludwig van Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies
Music: Service [Limited Edition] [Import]
The 20 Greatest Christmas Songs [Import]
The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators [Import]
The Prestige Christmas Collection
Amazon.com
In a rock & roll world divided between guitar bands and synth bands, Morphine exist in a no-man's zone. The Boston trio has neither guitars nor keyboards and gets by with just drums, sax, and bass. In a pop universe where every singer, guitarist, and keyboardist instinctively goes to a higher note to attract attention, Morphine stay hunkered down low. Billy Conway's tuned drum kit, Dana Colley's baritone sax and Mark Sandman's baritone vocals and two-string slide bass all occupy the same low-end band of the sound spectrum. Morphine's odd configuration would have no more than novelty value if Sandman's songs weren't so good. This album's first single, "Honey White," for instance, rides the back of a fast, angular baritone riff to describe a pretty, young girl hooked on drugs. In the dark comedy of Sandman's rock-noir purr, Honey tells her dealer, "You'll get me when I'm old and wizened and not a day before that." He replies, "It won't be that long." The beat and the humor are essential, for otherwise these jazzy, elliptical mood pieces would become unbearably pretentious. The broken relationship described in "Radar" is a pop cliché, but it's given new life by the shattered R&B riff and by the nit-picking bickering of lines like "If I am guilty, so are you. It was March 4, 1982." In similar fashion, modern paranoia and sexual gamesmanship are nailed to the wall in "Sharks" and "Whisper" respectively. --Geoffrey Himes
From the Label
It's only been a few years since Boston's Morphine first rumbled up from the netherworld and took the guitar out of rock. With just bass, drums, and saxophone, this unlikely power trio has become an international phenomenon, playing for sold-out crowds in both clubs and on festival stages around the world in support of their surprise hit album, CURE FOR PAIN. Having barely cooled their heels after more than a year on the road, Morphine delivered their third Rykodisc release, yes, another... read more