Like Swimming

MORPHINE

(Dreamworks)

This is music that comes at you from dark alleys, perfect for Dexedrine-fueled late-night drives and aberrant sex with strangers. Morphine, which formed in 1989 in Boston, was built around daring instrumentation: Mark Sandman (who died on stage in 1999) on two-string slide bass, Dana Colley's tenor and baritone saxophones and a drummer. Adding to this celebration of the lower register are Sandman's detached baritone and lyrics that tend toward the weird. This alchemy could've turned quickly into a gimmick, but Morphine managed to plumb its loin-rattling sound for five first-rate full-lengths. Like Swimming, the trio's major-label debut, contains its catchiest cache of songs — all slurry bass and raspy sax laying down bluesy riffs that complement sinister hooks. Intoxicating.

This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...