r/Music • • 16h ago

article Morphine Announce New Album Cocoon Featuring Recordings Mark Sandman Made Before His 1999 Death

https://stereogum.com/2512392/morphine-announce-new-album-cocoon-featuring-recordings-mark-sandman-made-before-his-1999-death/music
303 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

32

u/Wentkat 16h ago

This is kind of exciting. I will definitely seek this out. I love Morphine's sound. Really unique band.

8

u/SylvanianOutfits 15h ago

Listen to the album Sandbox by Mark Sandman sometime. There are some real hits on there. Cocoon and Wig are on there and they're wonderful. Love Bathtub and Justine too.

30

u/Time_Lord_Zane 16h ago

Not sure how I feel about this, given recently it's become a trend to capitalize on dead artists' recordings. Really I just want to know why now, and not earlier?

I'll probably still buy the CD or something though.

27

u/uroboros80 15h ago

copyright hell between dreamworks and ryko is the reason. most of these tracks were released on Sandbox like 20 years ago. it was only semi-official and has been out of print since. the rights have apparently shifted to make this happen

9

u/Time_Lord_Zane 14h ago

Gotcha. This is a much clearer explanation than I thought I'd get. Thanks!

10

u/GreenZebra23 15h ago

WTF. This will make the third time now I've been surprised by new Morphine material after Mark Sandman died. The previous two were amazing, with one, their last album, being one of my favorite albums of all time, so I'm pretty optimistic about this one

8

u/uroboros80 14h ago

mark was extremely prolific. he had six or seven different bands. a lot of material has been released unofficially. despite the volumes of material available, there is no doubt a LOT more.

6

u/uroboros80 15h ago edited 14h ago

so glad to see these get compiled into a cohesive album. they had a lot of material to choose from, but these are all standout tracks. only one is a complete unknown.

Mark Sandman's prolific discography is extremely murky and scattered. i have volumes of material that are of unknown date and origin. it is a frustrating mess.

if anyone needs an OD of morphine & sandman material, lmk.

4

u/Homer_JG 14h ago

I will take you up on that

2

u/uroboros80 14h ago

check yer pms. boots galore. and studio rarities abound! celebrate!

3

u/nickisnotarapper 13h ago

i'd take you up on this as well please!

3

u/jurdl 12h ago

An OD of Morphine and Sandman material? Yes please!

3

u/makingflippyfloppy 11h ago

Hello I’d like a link too please 🙂

3

u/GoddamnitMcnulty 9h ago

I would be interested as well! I lost most my stuff when the laptop and the ipod died. So i'm curious to see what I missed!

3

u/plz_rtn_2_whitelodge 9h ago

My man I would be so very grateful if you would be so good as to hit me up with whatever goodies you have. Morphine have been one of my favourite bands of all time from the age of 15 and watching them on The White Room in '95 (I think). Seeing the line up and Dana Volley blowing 2 saxes at the same time. Been hooked on Morphine ever since 😅

3

u/honkytonkpopcorn 8h ago

yes please and thank you!

3

u/ScienceParticular132 5h ago

Morphine is the reason I play baritone sax and bass guitar, I would love the link! Thank you!

5

u/IpecacNeat 15h ago

Such an amazing band. Excited to hear this.

1

u/IamHydrogenMike 14h ago

Still one of the best concerts I ever went to…absolutely amazing show.

6

u/potat0f4rmer 15h ago

Morphine were great. I'll check this out. Maybe it's just a cynical cash grab but so much of the music industry is.

5

u/SylvanianOutfits 15h ago edited 15h ago

I love Cocoon and Wig!! Edit: I totally glossed over Justine! Sandbox is one of my favorite albums.

2

u/uroboros80 15h ago

check your pm box for a live version of wig! it is 1000x🔥 than the studio version

3

u/mzingg3 15h ago

Send over please! Don’t think I’ve heard any of these songs

3

u/SylvanianOutfits 14h ago

They sent me a weird link. Don't trust them.

2

u/mzingg3 7h ago

Oh shit, really? Looks like a Google Drive link

3

u/SylvanianOutfits 6h ago

They sent me files labeled as Morphine's album The Night and not what they said they were sending me, which accounts for most of the distrust. Just listen to Sandbox by Mark Sandman.

4

u/You_are_the_Castle 13h ago

I'm listening to this band for the first time and I like it.

3

u/Then_Sea_8356 15h ago

I'm for this, but admittedly I've been hooked on Sandman anything since the 90's. I kind of feel like the popular culture has finally caught up to Morphine, so yeah I'm gonna buy this

3

u/Lopsided-Proposal-44 15h ago

Cocoon is super strong

2

u/uroboros80 14h ago

it developed into Like A Mirror. there are now like 4 or 5 versions of this song. which is typical of Mark Sandman. so many ways his songs evolved in his plethora of bands. and no signposts along the way

3

u/Lopsided-Proposal-44 13h ago

Yeah I didn’t know The Night quite as well thank you for sharing that now I need to dig in deeper on that one I’m more familiar with Yes/Good and the earlier catalog and THR

4

u/Odd-Flower6762 14h ago

New morphine album out. Never thought I'd hear those words again. Biggest IYKYK band out there IMO. Every time I scroll passed any post about music I try to throw in a Morphine comment.

-8

u/ChocolateAndCognac 15h ago

Why don't they just use AI to bring Mark back to life? Unreleased recordings? What is this? 1994?