The Night (Morphine album)

The Night is the fifth and final studio album by the alternative rock band Morphine, released in 2000 via DreamWorks.^[1][2] The album expands the band's sound beyond their usual arrangements of previous albums (bass, saxophone and drums), introducing acoustic guitars, organs, strings and female backing vocals.^[3]

The Night
Studio album by Morphine
Released	February 1, 2000
Recorded	1998–1999
Studio	Hi-N-Dry (Cambridge) Super Sonic (Cambridge) Magic Shop (New York City)
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	50:09
Label	DreamWorks
Producer	Mark Sandman Morphine
Morphine chronology
Like Swimming (1997) The Night (2000)

The album peaked at No. 137 on the Billboard 200.^[4]

Production

Jerome Deupree, the band's original drummer, who had previously quit due to health problems, rejoined and played alongside Billy Conway, according to credits listed in the CD booklet.^[5] The Night was thus Morphine's first album recorded as a quartet rather than a trio.^[6][7]

The band recorded the album over two years^[7] in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, home studio of singer-bassist Mark Sandman.^[3][8] Several guest musicians appeared, most of whom were associated with the improvising ensemble Club d'Elf with whom Sandman collaborated occasionally in the late 1990s.^[9]

Recording sessions for the album were completed shortly before Sandman's sudden July 1999 death. Sandman and saxophonist Dana Colley oversaw the final mixing process.^[10]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
Robert Christgau	[12]
Des Moines Register	[13]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[1]
Los Angeles Times	[14]
Orlando Sentinel	[15]
Pitchfork Media	5.7/10[16]
Rolling Stone	[17]
Spin	8/10[18]

The Pitch wrote that "it’s not a romantic exaggeration to say that this album is the trio’s most sensuous, satisfying recording, finally delivering on the diverting-but-two-dimensional original notion of what Sandman termed 'low rock' ... The Night is the first time in ages a posthumous release has made noise from beyond the grave that doesn’t sound like a cash register."^[19] Trouser Press wrote that "the tone may be dour due to the singer’s sudden death, but the music is the most fully realized and finely textured Morphine ever mustered."^[10] Exclaim! called the album "a slow, grinding burlesque that hovers tentatively between testifying to above and wallowing down below."^[20]

Track listing

All songs written by Mark Sandman.

1. "The Night" – 4:50
2. "So Many Ways" – 4:01
3. "Souvenir" – 4:40
4. "Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer" – 5:44
5. "Like a Mirror" – 5:26
6. "A Good Woman Is Hard to Find" – 4:14
7. "Rope on Fire" – 5:36
8. "I'm Yours, You're Mine" – 3:46
9. "The Way We Met" – 2:59
10. "Slow Numbers" – 3:58
11. "Take Me with You" – 4:54

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes.^[5]

Morphine

• Mark Sandman – vocals, 2-string slide bass, acoustic guitar, piano, organ, trombone, tritar
• Dana Colley – baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass saxophone, piano, backing vocals,
• Billy Conway – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Jerome Deupree – drums (1–8, 10, 11)
• Jane Scarpantoni – cello (1, 7, 11)
• Mike Rivard – double bass (7, 11)
• John Medeski – organ (4, 8)
• Billy Beard – hand drum (7)
• Brahim Fribgane – oud, frame drum (7)
• Joseph Kessler – viola (7, 11)
• Carolyn Kaylor – backing vocals (2, 4)
• Linda Viens – backing vocals (2, 4)
• Ramona Clifton – backing vocals (4)
• Margaret Garrett – backing vocals (5)
• Tara McManus – backing vocals (5)

Technical

• Mark Sandman – producer, engineer (Hi-N-Dry)
• Morphine – producer, art direction
• Brian Dunton – engineer (Hi-N-Dry)
• Matthew Ellard – engineer (Hi-N-Dry)
• Juan Garcia – engineer (Magic Shop)
• Reto Peter – engineer (Magic Shop)
• Dave Kay – engineer (Super Sonic)
• Toby Mountain – mastering
• Robert Fisher – design

Charts

Chart (2000)	Peak position
US Billboard 200	137