Morphine "Cure for Pain" [1993]

Sounding like what I could've sworn was one of Tom Waits' bands in its sell-out phase, 90s indie rockers Morphine apparently went drastically redux -- two-string bass, sax and drums, (almost) no guitar -- so they'd have more money to spend on drugs. Of course, this will lead a band speedily down a path of boring redundancy, and it predictably takes only a few songs before you're ready to kick that sax player off the street corner. This wouldn't be nearly as annoying if singer/broken-bass-player Mark Sandman could carry a tune at least a little bit, or if his filler consisted of something other than his embarrassing wannabe Leonard Cohen conceits. These guys sound like if Mitchell Froom had fired all the non-Jews from Los Lobos. Let this be a lesson to all would-be rockers looking to keep expenses at a minimum as you go on tour: your shit gets old fast with minimal instrumentation, believe me. Even if what you think you're doing is sparing everyone from another trite, two-guitar grunge assault, it's not really helping if what you're playing is even more trite. And about boring chicks only you care about. The only reason Morphine went over in the first place is because the 90s was supposed to be this renaissance of rock bands; the only way to legitimize this idea was to have like a million groups signed to record labels, even the crap ones like Morphine. Instead of "Cure for Pain," they should have called this "Filling the Void."