Sandbox: The Music Of Mark Sandman Easton PA

Sandbox: The Music Of Mark Sandman

Mark Sandman

Hi-N-Dry, 2004

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 03/02/2005

Posthumous releases typically are patched-together works and areusually compiled under the best intentions. Yes, people are goingto make more money off the artist, but generally, the people who dothe compiling have a genuine respect for the musician. Still, mygeneral consensus is that for about 90 percent of the time, anartist leaves these tracks off of albums for a reason.

In the case of Sandbox: The Music of Mark Sandman, the compilationrepresents Mark Sandman's work with his bandmates from Morphine andTreat Her Right. In addition, Sandbox represents Sandman's work with various artists hebumped in to when he was mulling about the Boston scene, duckinginto bars and absorbing the sounds of the city.

Two distinct bands and some other musicians... already Sandbox sounds like it could be a mess. However, with onelisten you could easily mistake it for an ambitious double-albumrecorded by Mark Sandman as a solo project. In addition to somesuperior recording quality, the general themes of solitude,dangerous women and the love of the written word permeate virtuallyall of the 30-plus songs on Sandbox.

In Sandbox, the listener gets to hear virtually all ofSandman's guises: the daydreamer ("I Can Do That"), the quirkyhumorist ("Riley the Dog") and the romantic ("Get Along"). "HotelRoom,""Bathtub" and "Justine" have the smokey, late-night groovesthat many Morphine fans have been accustomed to.