Track Listing

1. Lilah (Instr.)
2. Potion
3. I Know You (Pt. III)
4. Early To Bed
5. Wishing Well
6. Like Swimming
7. Murder For The Money
8. French Fries w/ Pepper
9. Empty Box
10. Eleven O' Clock
11. Hanging On A Curtain
12. Swing It Low

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10006 in Music
• Released on: 1997-03-11
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Morphine's music, which connects with listeners on a very physical level, is so simple it's amazing no one's done it before. Using exclusively low-register instruments, Mark Sandman's two-string bass and baritone voice, and Dana Colley's bass and baritone saxophones, the band's songs actually reverberate in the chest, treating listeners to a low-impact massage. And anything that feels this good can't be bad.

But Morphine's blessing--that distinctive low rock sound--is also their curse. Not only do they bind themselves to an instantly recognizable sound, but they also limit themselves in their arrangements: Voice and sax can each hit only one note at a time (though Colley sometimes manages to honk two saxes at once), while the bass can manage a two-note interval at best. It's hard being dynamic using only three or four sounds.

So where does that leave Like Swimming, Morphine's fourth album (and first since signing on with the big boys at DreamWorks)? Pretty much where the band started, it seems--with a blessing and a curse. As with past records, Like Swimming is easy to appreciate, full of loping bass lines and slithery sax riffs that strut through jazzy rock numbers like "Wishing Well" and "Empty Box." But while newcomers may be happy with the band's warm swing, others will pine for the first time they heard the band's earlier breakthrough on Cure For Pain. Only with the album closer "Swing It Low" (a title that could be a band manifesto) does Morphine hint at changes to come: With guitar, keyboards, programmed drums, and no saxophone, the song (first released as a Sandman solo project) proves it possible to capture Morphine's noir moods in midrange as well. --Roni Sarig

Customer Reviews

A Weak Effort
While this album has a few really strong songs (i.e. "I Know You," "Wishing Well," "Murder for the Money") the majority of the songs on this record are not so great. I am a huge Morphine fan and probably saw them play live at least 20 times. My biggest beef with "Like Swimming" is that it contains many songs that they had played live for YEARS and which never made it onto their previous albums. Mark Sandman even made fun of a few of these songs ("11 O'Clock," "Empty Box," "French Fries With Pepper") in his onstage intros...perhaps because of their painfully bad lyrics. The overwrought production SCREAMS "We are on a 'Major Label' now" and seems to strongly contradict the "lo-fi" sound they so carefully cultivated on their first three albums. Drum loops and samples, long meandering intros, badly-chorused backing vocals, really cheezy synths...All these studio tricks seem to be an attempt to cover up a bunch of half-songs.

While I don't loathe this album the way many of my fellow Morphine fans do (trust me...they are out there...they just don't post reviews on Amazon), "Like Swimming" is the staggering disappointment in their catalog simply because there is plenty of evidence that Morphine were capable of so much more with every other album they released.

Morphine just gets it.
I've had `Cure for Pain' and `Yes' for years, and now that I've completed my entry level audiophile sound system (B&W 600 series 3, 604s in the front, 601s in the back and the LCR 600 in the center with a 300 watt SVS 10 inch ported sub) I've been buying tons of cd's, as mp3s just wont cut it. `Cure for Pain' has been one of my favorite discs forever, and I'm sure that I just need to spend a little more time with `Yes' to feel the same. `Like Swimming' however, took no time at all for me to get. It has the sound of a bands earlier work even though it's later in the catalogue. Its rough, jagged and inflicting, most bands lose that after moderate success, but here Morphine's dug deeper. If you have any of this legendary groups music and enjoy it, get this disc, hell I'll speak for the three I've mentioned and 'The Night' (bought a few months ago) the bands last disc, which has a very polished, eerie sound with dark lyrics that seems the most fitting way to end their era just before the tragic loss of their front man Mark Sandman. If you've never listened to these guys, I'd recommend `Cure for Pain' first, but I'd give this disc 10 stars if I could. These people are incredibly talented, unclassifiable and wonderful people. I met the surviving members (now Twinemen-check them out!) a few years back while doing sound tech for a local venue. I hung out with them for almost an hour back stage, they were so relaxed and hospitable, flattered and seemed genuinely interested the questions they asked me about my life, avoiding talking about them selves. Not a common theme amongst the hundreds of musicians I've worked with. Do you self a favor, get into Morphine.

Morphine Best of the Best
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.