kellydeal's Full Review: Cure for Pain by Morphine
Ahh, the sensual experience of Morphine. I discovered this band in late 1993 smack dab in the middle of the early 90’s grunge era. And this “Cure for Pain” album provided just that. With their very minimal (homemade) slide bass guitar, low baritone saxophone and drums Morphine provided a sexy, smart, distinctive, and very real alternative right in the middle of a time when anything “alternative” was not only consumed with guitar feedback and self loathing but was also being played on the radio every other hour.
It’s a shame I have to start this all out by telling you Mark Sandman, the 46 year old lead singer and bassist of the Boston-based trio Morphine, suffered a fatal heart attack while performing at a music festival near Rome in July of 1999. It’s awesome, in the true sense of the word, I had the pleasure of seeing them live a couple of times before this tragedy. It’s unfortunate with out that distinctive voice, it’ll never be the same.
So onto Morphine’s “Cure for Pain”
It’s the kind of music that makes you want to kick back in the basement of a one-story Eisenhower era house; low ceilings, imitation wood paneling, low lighting, lounge chairs and all. You are driven to break out the pick to cut up a block of ice to cool down a stiff drink in your highball glass and kick back to have a few cocktails with your friends before you hit the town. At least that’s what you start out to do. After a few drinks and a few tracks into the album, instead of heading out, you creep into the cool, sink back into your easy chair and enjoy the thick luxury of Morphine …and you stay put.
Cure for Pain opens with Dawna a short, forty second, non-vocal track that melts you into the Morphine experience with a low-fi organ one note drone in the background while the baritone sax drifts through this short introduction.
Then track 2 kicks in with the slide bass hitting low, drums ticking away time and Sandman’s voice introduces you to “Buena”:
“come on a little closer, to the front of the stage/ a little closer I got something to say/ I want to see your face you see I met a little devil named Buena Buena/ and since I met that devil I ain’t been the same”
Track 3 “I’m Free Now” is all low saxophone, low, low bass and minimal drums while Mark Sandman croons …
“I’m free now to direct a movie/sing a song or write a book about yours truly/ how I’m so interesting, I’m so great I’m really just a f*ck up and it’s such a waste…”
It’s a more appreciated case of self absorption behind the sexy background…that low sax just wails along with Sandman’s voice – bringing out the truth – the lyricist is only trying to convince himself of this newly found freedom.
Track 7 “In Spite of Me”, is arguably the most different sounding of the songs because it’s simply a mandolin strumming away a beautiful and quite melody while Mark Sandman sings through some sort of distorter that gives his voice a far away feeling…
“Sometimes I tell a stranger all about you/ they smile patiently with disbelief/ I always knew you would succeed not matter what you tried/ and I know you did it all in spite of me / still I’m proud to be a part of your illustrious career/ proud to be a step up on your way/ proud to have known you the short time that I did/ and I know you did it all in spite of me”
Then it’s on to Track 8 “Thursday” the one track heard most out in public. If you find Cure for Pain in a jukebox in some hip and trendy pub, this is the track most likely played (probably because it’s one of the most driving… and I’m sure the video of this song that aired on MTV, probably a total of 4 times, didn’t hurt) A story about infidelity set behind the low wa-wa off the bass and drums ticking behind the voice swelling up with the urgency of the matter at hand …
“we used to meet every Thursday in the afternoon for a couple of beers and a game of pool/ we used to go to a motel across the street/ and the name of the motel was the wagon wheel/ and one day she said why don’t you come back to my house/ my husband’s out of town ‘til the end of the month/ and well I was just so nervous I couldn’t really quite relax ‘cause I was never really quite sure when her husband was coming back/ and sure enough the neighbors saw my car…”
The saxophone flutters wildly, ending the song in a crescendo that finishes the story the way you knew the way it would.
Track 9 is the title track that takes you back to that feel-good low-bass-swinging-motion in the music that brings a somehow lightness to lyrics like …
“I propose a toast to my self control/ I see it crawling helpless on the floor/ where is there faith some day there’ll be a cure for the pain /and that’s the day I throw my drugs away”
It’s a lot more whimsical musically and overall the best to identify with if you’re in any kind of swinging-but-still-trying-to-kick-the-habit-kind of mood.
Track 11 is pure cool “Let’s Take a Trip Together” is the kind of song you see yourself listening to on a actual long road trip at 3 am on a two lane highway in the middle of the desert surrounded by nothing but earth and rock and that little white line on the road blazing in the headlights – all the while your present company is sleeping next to you in the front seat – oblivious to the magic you feel.
“Let’s take a trip together heading into the irresistible orbit/ breathing the cold black space with the glistening edges”
It’s low drawn out sax with the drums and the tick of the high hat and bass line counting off each mile of that trip. Actually, it’s kind of like listening to falling.
The album then ends with “Miles Davis’ Funeral” which is a bass-y non-vocal funeral march that brings this album full circle lulling you to sleep but actually awakening you at the same time because…
Once it’s over, you’ll simply hit repeat on the way to freshen up your highball and get down to kicking back and listening with your friends – all the while feeling more smooth than anyone has a right to.
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