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Rating:
A happy anachronism, I don't know how else to define this Boston group compared to the American scene of the time, dominated by the explosion of grunge. The only precedent that comes to mind, with all due distinctions, is what the early Dire Straits represented in the London scene of '78 then overwhelmed by punk fury. Already the basic trio formation: bass, drums, and sax speaks volumes about how these guys, more than Nirvana, looked to the bands of the '50s/'60s and to a period when the electric guitar hadn't become the mistress of every rock band (not that it's absent here, but it's used sparingly and well).
In a period like the early nineties, where everyone was trying to exploit the new CD format by diluting the good stuff with tons of filler (and I could give examples of good records damaged by excessive length), here is an album that barely reaches the minimum for an LP, just 37:11 min, like in the good old days of the Beatles and the Stones. Smart Choice!
The choice to open and close with two brief and meditative instrumentals was also refined: the second, a requiem for the recently deceased Miles Davis, recalls a bit of "He loved him madly," a piece that the same St. Louis trumpeter dedicated to Ellington's death.
Buena: A piece that starts with such an inviting bass line is always a perfect opener for a funky tune sung with just the right dose of coolness by Sandman up to the explosive chorus where Dana Colley's wild baritone sax (male despite the name) kicks in. Muy Buena!
I'm Free Now: A more relaxed track (despite Sandman's two-string bass always being lively) with a repetitive sad melody on sax on which Sandman places his very loose, conversational and self-ironic singing ("flexing like a heartbeat, we don't like to speak, don't talk to me for about a week").
All Wrong: Interest rises again with an ingenious sax riff, but the highlight is the solo filtered through a wah-wah pedal. A simple and brilliant piece. An honorable mention for the verse: "and when she laughs I travel back in time, something flips the switch off and I collapse inside!"
Candy: Here is the indispensable ballad. The title hints at some loureeddian influences. It certainly has the catchiest chorus ("Candy said she wants me with her down in Candyland") and could have been the most commercially viable hit. Here too, I perceive a certain irony in Sandman's somewhat (overly) sweet singing.
A Head With Wings: One of the more retro tracks, old school boogie. I like that brief moment of percussive anarchy after the chorus "I got a head with wings!". The usual well-constructed solo by Colley, this time on tenor.
In spite of me: Here they surprise a bit with a folk beginning (a bit like Led Zeppelin's "Going to California") with fingerpicking and mandolin and a soft baritone voice, reminiscent of Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave. A brief, fleeting interlude that, however, is too short to propose itself as a cure for pain.
Thursday: It's the track that could come closest to the Grunge of the period with the baritone's growls and final guitar distortions thoroughly weighing down the sound of a piece on an affair broken off by the fear of a jealous husband's violent reaction.
Cure for Pain: "Someday there'll be a cure for pain That's the day I throw my drugs away When they find a cure for pain" seems a bit like the manifesto of the late Sandman's life philosophy. Another somewhat disorienting track because it seems to take it with resigned irony, though one might then think that nonetheless he died that fateful day in Palestrina of a mysterious heart attack…
Mary Won't You Call My Name?: A powerful start with overdubbed sax for a fast-paced track almost like Madness-style ska. The chorus is left to Sandman's voice alone over the timpani's tinkling. Suspended ending.
Let's Take A Trip Together: almost a dark Tom Waits b-side with a sinuously hypnotic pace that dissolves, like the previous one, in a breath. One must admit these Morphine know how to create an enticing atmosphere with few means: an overdubbed voice, a faint organ on a Latin rhythm.
Sheila: I'm not very awake but I suspect that Sheila's cat isn't a feline but a nice cat o' nine tails, on the other hand, the refrain: "I'm yours to command, Sheila, Sheila" is quite unequivocal. Perverse.
In short, a good album, one of those apparently low-profile ones that seem tailor-made to become little cults, a close-knit and original band going against the tide with a minimalist formula, perhaps at first listen a bit monotonous but it reveals many little delights on subsequent listens.
Ten years after Sandman's death, Dana Colley returned to Palestrina to celebrate his friend's songs: "No one is trying to be Mark, no one is trying to be the Morphine. But these songs need to be played." As the Drifters, one of those R&B groups Sandman might have liked, sang, a good song never dies....
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Buena (03:20)
I hear a voice from the back of the room
I hear a voice cry out
We want something good
Well come on a little closer let me see your face
Yeah come on a little closer by the front of the stage
I said come on a little closer I got something to say
Yeah come on a little closer wanna see your face
You see I met a devil named buena buena
And since I met the devil I ain't been the same, oh no
And I feel alright now I have to tell you
I think it's time for me to finally introduce you to the
Buena buena buena buena good good girl
It's comin' to me
Yeah it's comin' to me
Now I think I know
What it is you need
I know some people wanna make a change
But I know how to make it go away
You see I met a devil named buena buena
And since I met the devil I ain't been the same, oh no
And I feel alright I have to tell you
I think it's time for me to finally introduce you to the
Buena buena buena buena good good girl
04 All Wrong (03:41)
She had black hair like ravens crawling over her shoulders
All the way down
She had a smile that swerved
She had a smile that curved
She had a smile that served all over the road
It's all wrong all wrong
All wrong all wrong
She had a way of making people feel good to be around her
As it should be
It's all wrong all wrong
All wrong all wrong (x2)
All wrong
And when she laughs I travel back in time
Something flips the switch and I collapse inside
It's all wrong all wrong
All wrong all wrong (x2)
All wrong
05 Candy (03:15)
candy told me nothing really matters anymore
when I ask her what she means, she says I oughtta know
candy says she's made arrangements
for me in the sand
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
candy says she wonders why we try
I couldn't think of what to say
I hadn't already replied
candy says I'd like it where she is
she says it's an opportunity I don't want to miss
candy says she's made arrangements
for me in the sand
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
candy asked me if she died
if I could go on
of course I said I couldn't
and of course we knew that's wrong
but candy, I said, candy no you can't do that to me
because you love me way too much
for you to ever leave
candy says she's made arrangements
for me in the sand
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
candy says she's made arrangements
for me in the sand
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
candy says she wants me with her
down in candyland
06 A Head with Wings (03:40)
i've got a head with wings
i got a head with wings,
i got a head with wings
and i can see so far away i can see so clear
you would not believe the view up here
i got a head with wings, a head with wings
now im floating around up here way above the clouds
so high above the ground
and the only thing that holds my head to the ground
is this one little skinny string
i got a head with wings, head with wings
i got a head with yea oh
a head with wings
i got a head with wings
i got a head with wings
i got a head with wings
and i can see so far away yes so far away
well i can see the shadows fall across your face
i got a head with wings
head with wings
i got a head with yea yea
a head with wings
a head with wings
yea yea
07 In Spite of Me (02:35)
last night I told a stranger all about you
they smiled patienty with disbelief
I' always knew you would succeed
no matter what you tried
and I know you did it all
in spite of me
still I'm proud to have known you
for the short time that I did
proud to have been a step up on your way
proud to be a part of your illustrious career
and I know you did it all
in spite of me
in spite of me
late last night
I saw you in my living room
you seemed so close but yet so cool
for a long time I thought that you'd be coming back to me
those kind of thoughts can be so cruel
so cruel
and I know you did it all
in spite of me
in spite of me
08 Thursday (03:26)
Band: Morphine
Song: Thursday
We used to meet every Thursday
Thursday
Thursday in the afternoon
For a couple a beers
And a game of pool
We used to go to a motel
A motel
A motel across the street
And the name of the motel
Was the "Wagon Wheel"
OH!
One day she said
C'mon C'mon
She said why dont you come back to my house
She said my husbands out of town
You know he's gone till the end of the month
Well I was just so nervous, so nervous
You know I couldn't really quite relax
'Cause I was really never quite sure
When her husband was coming back
It turned out it was one of the neighbors
One of the neighbors, one of the neigbors that saw my car
And they told her, yeah they told her
They think they know who you are
Well her husband is a violent man
A very violent and jealous man
Now I have to leave this town
I gotta leave while I still can
We should have kept it every Thursday
Thursday
Thursday in the afternoon
For a couple of beers
And a game of pool
(REPEAT 1X)
She was pretty cool too!
09 Cure For Pain (03:14)
Where is the ritual?
And tell me where, where is the taste?
Where is the sacrifice?
And tell me where, where is the faith?
Someday there'll be a cure for pain
That's the day I throw my drugs away
When they find a cure for pain
Where is the cave where the wise woman went?
And tell me where, where's all that money that I spent?
I propose a toast
To my self control
You see it crawlin' helpless on the floor
Someday there'll be a cure for pain
That's the day I throw my drugs away
When they find a cure for pain
Find a cure for
Find a cure for pain
10 Mary Won't You Call My Name? (02:29)
Cross my fingers and I hope to God
I knock on wood and pray with all I've got
Cross my bow with a cannonball
I see the writing on the wall hey
There's no map and there's no clue
Of where to go and what to do
Yea who to dog who to ride and who to hold
Forever by your side (x2)
Mary won't you call my name (x2)
Mary won't you call my (x2)
Mary won't you call my name
I fell into the hands of a rich man's daughter
She led me like a lamb no bother
To go and live inside a barn on her Daddy's 90 acre farm
Hide your daughters in the snow and watch out for the undertow
Hold both hands against the door and dig your feet into the floor
Tell ya there's no map and there's no clue
Of where to go and what to do
Who to dog and who to ride and who to hold
Forever by your side (x2)
Mary won't you call my name (x2)
Mary won't you call my (x2)
Mary won't you call my name
11 Let's Take a Trip Together (03:00)
let's take a trip together
headlong into the irresistable orbit
breathe in the cold black space
with the glistening edges
let's take a trip me and you
let's go the scenic route
get to finally
get to finally
get to finally
get to know eachother
just to be alone
just to be alone
just to be alone with thee
somewhere there's no distracting breeze of information
leaking through the windows dripping from the trees
somewhere there's no earthquakes
of other people's anxious questions
no nervous wrecks
going down
no nervous wrecks
going down
let's take a trip together
headlong into the irresistable orbit
12 Sheila (02:49)
sheila has a cat, she pets the cat
puts a spell on the cat, a beautifully cat
sheila has a cat, she pets the cat
yeah the beautiful cat says sheila sheila
sheila has a cat, she pets the cat
puts a spell on the cat, a beautiful cat
she takes the cat, looks him in the eyes
makes him reply sheila sheila
oh most gracious of beings
oh most gracious of beings my queen
i'm yours to command
yours to command
i'm yours to command sheila sheila
sheila has a cat, she pets the cat
puts a spell on the cat
she runs her fingers down his back
cause sheila has a cat, puts a spell on the cat
looks him in the eyes, makes him reply
sheila sheila
sheila sheila
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Other reviews
By Bleach
Morphine managed to coin a genre all their own in an absolutely original way.
The voice, with its soft and fluid tone, goes straight to the heart.
By Stefano90
Morphine have done nothing but this, depriving Rock music of its main instrument, the guitar; it’s a bit like mocking thirty (and more) years of music.
The music of Morphine is a music that lives on a wonderful contrast. The cold reason and the enveloping warmth of Sandman’s voice.
