Cure for Pain

Morphine

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 14, 1993)
• Original Release Date: September 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rykodisc
• ASIN: B0000009OP
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,664 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Cure for Pain is a most unlikely artistic breakthrough from a thoroughly unlikely band. Fronted by saxophone and two-string slide bass guitar, Morphine earned a modicum of critical praise for their prior recording, Good, but Cure for Pain has a harder edge and a distinctly bigger sound. "Buena" urges the listener, with singer and bassist Mark Sandman's best come-hither baritone voice, "closer to the front of the stage," and then "Candy" tells a love-lost story that could come right out of Tom Waits's book. But for all the strange possibilities inherent in a guitarless band that plays off their singer's wry lyrics, Morphine's sophomore effort shows their versatility, their ability to be a rock band in a very unrock, rolling-baritone-saxophone way. Alas, singer Mark Sandman perished in action on an Italian stage on July 3, 1999. --Andrew Bartlett

From the Label

On this album, Morphine expand their unique sound, while sticking to their trademark principle of subtraction. With the sensual title track as a plea for relief in a world that offers none ("Someday there'll be a cure for pain/ That's the day I throw my drugs away," goes the chorus), through the down 'n' out fatalism of "In Spite of Me," into "Thursday", a tale of infidelity and jealousy, all the way to the Muddy-Waters-on-Ganja ruminations of "Head With Wings," Morphine pulls emotional clarity out of the musical back alleys they frequent.

Putting a twist on the classic rock trio format, Sandman plays a homemade two-string slide bass of which he is the world's sole practitioner. "My fingers never touch the fretboard," he says with pride. "My model is a Premier with both strings tuned to the same note. I don't know why I picked this bass, maybe 'cause it was so....freaky lookin', I suppose."

CURE FOR PAIN features several guest musicians, including former Treat Her Right drummer Billy Conway on three tracks. (Conway has since replaced Jerome Deupree in the band). The standard Morphine lineup is augmented by the mandolin of Jimmy Ryan of the Blood Oranges on "In Spite of Me" and the percussion of Concussion Ensemble's Ken Winokur on "Miles Davis' Funeral." The album was produced by Paul Q. Kolderie (Radiohead, Buffalo Tom, Firehose) and recorded at Fort Apache Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"Implied grunge" is a term that Sandman tongue-in-cheekedly coined to describe Morphine's wall-of-guitarless sound. But the grabbing lineup is just a small part of the story. As Tower Pulse wrote in a review of GOOD: "Like a generous shot of single-malt scotch on an overcast afternoon in a corner '50s-style cocktail lounge....Morphine starts by warming the belly, then moves to the brain and loins. Its evocative songs rumble through rainy nightime streets like a '61 Plymouth Fury....This is one sensual record."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With apologies to Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", July 26, 2005

By	Brent A. Anthonisen "Johnny Sideburns" (Alpharetta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...what we have here is "a little VERY LATE night music".

This is the CD you put in when the smoke already hangs thick in the air over a felt table and you're breaking the seal over your second bottle of Black Label Jack while playing poker/shooting pool with only your friends of more nefarious (and infinitely more enjoyable) means.

Less was never more than when the lights dimmed and the impossibly dark Mark Sandman slung a three (later two)-string bass over his shoulder and led a drummer and saxophonist and a conspicuously absent guitarist into the consciousness of all who dared to believe that a mutated jazz trio could rock as hard as any guitar-slinging grunge band of the era yet still retain the degree of untouchable hipster cool that acts like the Ben Folds Five could only begin to imagine for themselves.

Mark Sandman was the Bill Hicks of music; an antiestablishment innovator whose very existence challenged one's beliefs and dared the listener to question all that had previously been assumed as writ; that he died well before his time is all the more tragic, but there is no denying the genius of the artist and the power with which that genius comes across in this, one of the finest albums of the decade.

At just over 37 minutes in length (including two sub-two minute instrumentals which serve as intro and closing pieces), this CD seems to parallele Sandman's life; amazingly achieved and far too short. With tunes ranging from the semi-ambient ("In Spite Of Me", "I'm Free Now", "Let's Take Trip Together") to the raging aggressive ("Buena", "Thursday", "Mary Won't You Call My name") to all shades of night in-between ("All Wrong", "Candy", "Sheila"), there really isn't a weak link to be found. While the CD itself runs short, the songs are at the perfect length; most clock in at 3-3.5 minutes so that you are able to sufficiently groove with them before they become tiresome and repititious. This is songwriting craftsmanship and musical innovation at its highest form, definitely a must-have for any musical collection and the best direction I can recommend for anyone who wants to add a little "something different, something cool" to their listening enjoyment.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cure for Pain - Song Noir, May 31, 2000

By	yarden "yarden" (portland, or) - See all my reviews

Boredom hurts, and Morphine is definitely the cure for pain; a smoky, dark band, Morphine weaves a sound that is not easily categorized as rock or blues. Instead, a drummer, saxophonist, and 2-string slide bassist/singer create something of a sensory deprivation-tank of sound, not unlike the pleasant stupor associated with their namesake drug, and in the process, invite us into a dark recess of sound.

The album is bold, driving, and dark, with blasting saxophone-riffs and sonorous bass. Mark Sandman's lyrics are deceptively simple, yet artfully performed, his voice a dark mournful bass. The saxophone is sometimes raw, sometimes polished, and I didn't know until I caught a concert, but sometimes the saxophonist plays TWO horns at once.

With this album, Morphine gives us some well-executed cuts, and is a great album as-a-whole. My favorite song on this album "In Spite of Me" is atypical of Morphine's style with Sandman singing in a half-whisper over a delicate mandolin-sound, but the rest of the album is enjoyable and delivers a potent dose of some really good music.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Band of the 90's, October 13, 1999

By	Hugh (Ponte Vedra, FL) - See all my reviews

Since learning (from NPR) of Mark Sandman's untimely death in July I have purchased all 5 of Morphine's albums. They are all great with Cure for Pain and Like Swimming the best- by far. I listen to cable radio and alternative radio (such as it is in Jacksonville, FL), occasionally read Rolling Stone, and like to watch new music videos, but I was completely unaware of the existence of this great band. Its a shame that the music industry gives us a choice only among teen-oriented boy and girl bands, hip-hop / rap, and aging or dead artists. Morphine is (was) real rock & roll.