Morphine – “Spaceman Charm”

In 1999, the unbelievably cool, permanently underrated Boston band Morphine ended in the most sudden, dramatic, tragic way that a band can end: Frontman Mark Sandman had a heart attack and died while playing a show in Italy. Morphine released one more album, 2000's The Night, which was completed before Sandman's passing. Now, we're about to get another Morphine album, made from the recordings that Sandman left behind.Morphine's upcoming album Cocoon is built from a series of abandoned recordings that Mark Sandman made with longtime Morphine producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade in the last years of his life. Kolderie and Sandman's partner Sabine Hrechdakian have gone through those recordings and constructed an album from them, and band member Dana Colley returned to record new saxophone parts for some of those songs. Versions of many of the songs, including the lead-single title track, already came out on the 2004 double CD Sandbox: The Music Of Mark Sandman. Today, we get to hear a Morphine track that's never been released in any form. Morphine recorded "Spaceman Charm" in 1998, and it's exactly the sort of seductive, atmospheric jazz-rock that made the band such a powerful force. This is one of the songs with a new saxophone part from Dana Colley, but I couldn't tell that from listening to it. It could've absolutely fit on a classic like Cure For Pain. Here's what Colley says about it:I struggled at first with what to add to "Spaceman Charm." These recordings had been set aside when we moved on to what became The Night, and coming back to them all these years later felt like resuscitating something from the past. With Paul Kolderie's guidance, I began experimenting with different saxophones and bass clarinet, finding ways to build on what Mark had recorded. Ultimately, it was a sense of completion, finally finishing something we'd started together nearly three decades ago.Check it out below.Cocoon is out 12/4 on Partisan.