At Your Service

Quick review of the new Morphine rarities disc that will appear in the November issue of The Noise....

When Morphine bassist /frontman Mark Sandman died in the summer of 1999, the iconoclastic band's promising run was cut fatally short. The past decade has left fans with a lot of questions as to what could have, should have, would have happened to Beantown's low rock heroes with few answers, save for a posthumous greatest hits collection and Dana Colley's recent resurgence in A.K.A.C.O.D. But as Sandman croons on the trio's loaded new rarities retrospective At Your Service, "Have Patience. Everything will be alright."
It's a promise the album delivers on fully. Twelve years since the band's last full length, At Your Service pulls together 35 tracks of b-sides, alternate takes and live cuts in an attempt to fill the void left by the band's breakup. Fortunately the band rolled a lot of tape during its tenure, and much of the two disc set stands alongside the band's best work. Tracks like "Women R Dogs" and "Come Over" will feel achingly familiar, basking in the band's signature molasses-like blues sound, while the live cuts the make up much of the second disc are a cut above the Bootleg: Detroit release. As a rarities set it's not the most consistent listen, but fans who have long been jonesing for a fix will find it pretty refreshing (Ryan Bray).