Three Things: Morphine - You Look Like Rain
A Three-Minute, 38-Second Definition of 'Sultry.'
As part of therapy, I've been tasked to write more, specifically about music. The task is to write three things I love about a piece of music I deeply enjoy.
Every Morphine song is about sex, including and especially the songs that aren’t about sex (it’s a short list). That’s a stretch, but if I had Mark Sandman’s singing voice every song would be about sex. You Look Like Rain, from Morphine’s debut, is as much a mission statement from the band as it is about sex. Drums, bass, and sax, each played on narcotic time with half-sung, half-whispered lyrics. “Your mind and your experience call to me. You have lived and your intelligence is sexy.” Those can’t be lyrics; that’s the central theme of a love letter from Anaïs Nin to Henry Miller.
The coolest man in the room is always the man with the horn. Dana Colley’s baritone saxophone in You Look Like Rain moves through, in, and around Mark Sandman’s hypnotic voice, punctuating time with effortless cool. He’s never rushed, always stylish, and utterly unbothered with the idea of being the lead instrument. Listen to the way he builds atmosphere and mood, and then listen again to when he simply stops and lets the air play the song. It’s not about the notes he plays. It’s about the space between.
I have always loved in-studio moments that make it into the final mix. If you listen carefully, you can hear Sandman inhale, breathe out, and settle in, like he’s about to tell you a dirty story. And he is.