Like Swimming

Morphine | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 11, 1997)
• Original Release Date: March 11, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dreamworks
• ASIN: B000005AM3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,621 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Morphine's finest, February 26, 2000

By 

Jason Kent (Anchorage, Alaska United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Like Swimming (Audio CD)

Like Swimming is Morphine's best CD (I haven't heard The Night yet, though). It's hard to write about it since Mark Sandman's death, but I will try.

Like Swimming builds off the strengths of their previous album, Yes. Their unique sound created by a saxophone, two-string slide bass guitar, and drums is both suppressed at times by Sandman's halting vocals, and at others unleashed with amazing force and beauty. Take, for example, the difference between the hauntingly sublime "I Know You (Pt. 3)" and the chaotic "11 O'Clock". Only Morphine could deliver these two opposite styles of music with such perfection.

One of the best things about Morphine is that they cannot be pigeon-holed into a genre or a style of music. Are they rock, or jazz, or alternative, or what? You also cannot say, like so many other bands, they are "a cross between 'so-and so' and 'someone else'" because no one has ever played music like this. Have you ever heard of a two-string slide bass guitar? Or a Double-Saxophone? All this is just a part of the genius of Mark Sandman and Morphine.

I think PJ Harvey once said that Morphine is one of the sexiest bands ever. I agree with Harvey. Morphine's low, smoky sound is perfect mood music for, well, you know.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I feel like swimming right now...., June 5, 2004

By 

Sean Widlake (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Like Swimming (Audio CD)

Being from Boston, and being friends with Mark, i can say that i thought he was a man with a vision...well...anyway... I loved this album, and actually found it to be my favorite. Yes I do like all of his albums, but i especially like Like Swimming, for his haunting lyrics and saxaphone sounds. I thought it was a brilliant balance of jazz and rock with poetic verse to bring this album to a life of its own. I love every song but my favorite is Empty Box for its words, they're very meaningful, and whatever one person thinks, another thinks something completely different which brings perspective, that is brilliant... I don't think i have anything more to say except for the people that found it monotonous and boring, or so drawn into the "Morphine Style" get a life, because you completely miss the point Mark wanted and so you just think about what sounds good rather than what's interesting and different and how it continues on as such....

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Morphine Best of the Best, January 6, 2006

By 

Daniel M. Schottland "Danny Schotts" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Like Swimming (Audio CD)

Being a huge Morphine fan for years now, and having all of their albums I figured it was time for me to share my thoughts (finally!)

If I had to order the albums in terms of least to most favorite I'd go Good, Yes, Cure For Pain, The Night, & Like Swimming...Like Swimming is their best album in my opinion. Take for example the song Like a Curtain totaly symbolizes what Morphine was about. Drawing beauty from things that seem dark simplistic. The song only has one "riff", but as it progresses it seems to become more and more complex. It might be my favorite Morphine song...period.

I Know You (PartIII) strong enough to carry the album by itself. Billy Conway could not have added a more perfect drum beat during the Chorus ("I know you, you know me too, I know everything that you're gonna do")

French Fries w/ Pepper is another song that proves Mark to be an absolute genius. For those true music lovers (and even more so for bass players), the bass riff itself is amazing. The lyrics are also very good.

I have to end this review a little abruptly, but I definately recomend this album to everyone, as I'm sure you Morphine fans already own it. Bottom line, this is just a very cool album.