A nice high: the best Morphine

The Best of Morphine 1992-1995

Morphine

Rykodisc

… The Best of Morphine 1992-1995

Morphine

Rykodisc

Morphine, characterized by the term “low rock” during the height of grunge, have released a best-of, which is perhaps unnecessary considering that the band’s releases since 1993’s superb Cure For Pain have been largely unoriginal. Nonetheless, the 16-track disc wisely contains a lot of the band’s earlier material, a live track and some unreleased rarities.

Morphine earned the label “low rock” with their brooding and slightly creepy drums, saxophone, bassist Mark Sandman’s crooning vocals and especially with his one- or two-stringed bass playing, which accented the band’s smoky sound with constant debase tones. Most often, Morphine maintained a tense-but-restrained poppy sound, though they excelled at live appearances and Sandman experimented with different instruments and players over time.

During their heyday, Morphine consisted of drummer Jerome Deupree, then drummer Billy Conway, saxophonist Dana Colley, and bassist/vocalist Mark Sandman, who died in 1999 onstage in Palestrina, Italy, of a heart attack.

Morphine formed in 1990 in Sandman’s Cambridge, Mass., apartment as Sandman sang and played one-stringed bass while Colley played saxophone and sung spontaneously. Sandman then decided to find gigs and a drummer, after having been highly regarded in the Boston area for his presence in blues-rock group Treat Her Right, who opened for Bob Dylan during the 1980s.

The Best of Morphine 1992-1995 showcases songs from the albums Good, Cure For Pain, Yes, B-Sides, and Otherwise. It begins with Morphine’s signature “Bueno” then picks up with “Honey White,” which has a faintly 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll feel. The track “Candy” marks end of Deupree’s stay with the band

The disc shows off Morphine’s seductive quality with the tracks “Whisper” and “Super Sex,” whose lyrics comprise some of the sleazy English words used in European countries that Sandman collected while touring, according to saxophonist Dana Colley in an interview. The Best of… also features the previously unreleased tracks, “Jack and Tina” and “Pretty Face,” which were both recorded in one take, and “Shame,” which was recorded live for the television show “On Tour.” The playful track “Sexy Christmas Baby Mine,” a summery Christmas song, was previously only available as vinyl 45. This album offers a decent bunch of highlights from a unique band, however in the case of Morphine, the listener would be better served by the band’s first few albums.