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The buzz of the Night....

Vingilot | EU | 08/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Released posthumously, the Night stands out as the culminating masterpiece of the Boston trio. The low-sounding buzzing monotonic jazz-rock vibrates from the speakers without becoming too boring or annoying. Dim the lights, put your feet up, close your eyes and enjoy.



I was introduced to Morphine in 1993, when they had just released their classic album "Cure for Pain". The low-rock minimalistic sound with that incredible baritone saxophone just did the trick to me. The songs on that album are quite open to a general audience, with choruslines of many songs like " Buena", "Candy" and "All Wrong" remaining in your head. The sound was low, but quite crisp and clear. Coming from the sound of their more jazz-like debut album "Good" (1993) it had evolved. This debut album contains some jewels like "The Saddest Song" and "The other Side". However, the characteristic baritone sax sound was not that prominent then. I can remember once hearing a live version of "the saddest song" during their Cure for Pain time, when Dana Colley had added more sax to the song; it was great!



While anticipation was high, the third album was a bit of a disappointment to me. It was clear to me that the music was evolving further, but IMHO the general sound on "YES" was too experimental. "Free Love" however, contained by far the lowwest baritone sax note ever striking my ears and I found myself up to my stereo set increasing bass to a maximum to relive the feeling I encountered on the one occasion I heard Morphine live (1994): the feeling of my pants vibrating to the dark low waves of the sax. The disappointment about YES was the reason I never bought "Like Swimming".



When I heard Sandman had collapsed on stage, but not until he had handed in material for a full studio album, I was curious what his final musical accomplishment had been. From the moment I heard the titlesong "The Night", it just struck me: this was some of the best Morphine had produced. Integrating the jazz-like sound of their first album with the catchy choruslines of Cure for Pain and topped with the experimental flavor of YES Morphine had proven to advance. "Top floor, Bottom buzzer" reminded me again of the some of the cure for pain songs. "Souvenir" struck me as a very jazzy song (especially the drumming), more like the songs on "Good", but then with the improvement I have already been talking about. Then again, The Night also contains unique material like "Rope on Fire". Never in my life I have heard a saxophone play this catchy eastern tune. Marvellous! In "Take me with You", minimalism has been reduced with even backing vocals; but, I have to say, the combination of Sandman's intriguing monotonic sound combined with more instruments (even orchestrated) and backing vocals is very nice to the ear.



To me, "the Night" is a Morphine classic with overall quality rising to the level of "Cure for Pain", but with a sound which has evolved and grown. Sandman left us where he was best, in the sound of the Night."