morphine - good

.:: The low chords sweep so deeply, the music twists around the wrists, and Morpheus, The God Of Dreams, has a gift for you....he calls it Morphine. And Morphine calls it GOOD, the debut album that was originally released on Boston's small Accurate-Distortion label, and rejected by every major label in the book. Little did they know that the following year's CURE FOR PAIN would set Morphine up as one of the more unique things to happen to indie rock in recent years.

Morphine features the unique instrumentation of Mark Sandman's voice and one-string bass (on later albums he'd get bold and add a second string), which he plays with a glass slide. The music's warm edge is provided by Dana Colley on baritone sax and the commanding drums of Jerome Deupree, Billy Conway's predecessor. The sound of Morphine is low and sensuous, joining a powerful groove with spare penetrating lyrics. A tad bluesier and more atmospheric than their followup albums, GOOD features such tunes as "You Speak My Language" that remain a high point of their live shows.

GOOD was co-produced by Paul Q. Kolderie (Buffalo Tom, Uncle Tupelo, fIREHOSE, Throwing Muses, Pixies, many more) and additional tracks were done with Tom Dube (Tin Machine, Walkers).


.:: With no guitars and a half a set of bass strings, Morphine managed to rock harder than most of their fret-bound competition while retaining the slippery nocturnal undercurrent that would become their signature sound. On this 1992 debut album, the Boston trio strips down the minor-key blues of frontman Mark Sandman's former group, Treat Her Right, and adds a host of off-kilter elements.

Sandman's slide bass and narcoleptic vocals are perfectly complemented by Dana Colley's frenetic baritone sax, which he plays like a cross between Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Van Der Graaf Generator's David Jackson. Sandman reportedly played one-string bass for this album (he'd later expand to two), and the sound quality here is murkier than on subsequent efforts. But tracks such as the infectious "You Speak My Language" and the prophetic "Do Not Go Quietly unto Your Grave" (Sandman would die onstage in 1999) are powerful indicators of Morphine's dark musical glories to come. --Bill Forman

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