With no guitars and a half a set of bass strings, Morphine managed to rock harder than most of their fret-bound competition while retaining the slippery nocturnal undercurrent that would become their signature sound. On this 1992 debut album, the Boston trio strips down the minor-key blues of frontman Mark Sandman's former group, Treat Her Right, and adds a host of off-kilter elements. Sandman's slide bass and narcoleptic vocals are perfectly complemented by Dana Colley's frenetic baritone sax, which he plays like a cross between Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Van Der Graaf Generator's David Jackson. Sandman reportedly played one-string bass for this album (he'd later expand to two), and the sound quality here is murkier than on subsequent efforts. But tracks such as the infectious "You Speak My Language" and the prophetic "Do Not Go Quietly unto Your Grave" (Sandman would die onstage in 1999) are powerful indicators of Morphine's dark musical glories to come. --Bill Forman
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