Released April 4, 1994 Producer Codeine, Mike McMackin Release date 4 April 1994 Genre Slowcore | Length 43:11 Artist Codeine Label Sub Pop | |
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Recorded August and December 1993, at Idful Music (Chicago), 3-Communications (Middletown) and Mike and Rick's (Brooklyn) Similar Frigid Stars LP, Barely Real, I Could Live in Hope, Spiderland, The Curtain Hits the C | ||
Codeine the white birch full album
The White Birch is the second and final album by the New York City band Codeine. Released in April 1994, the album is considered by many to be the band's best album and a clear influence on Low, among other bands.
Contents
Codeine sea
Background
On their debut album Frigid Stars LP and the follow-on EP Barely Real, Codeine's sound was characterised by agonizingly slow tempos and a stripped-down aesthetic, their songs rarely venturing beyond the combination of a sharp, robust rhythm section underlying crisply ringing guitars. The White Birch introduced more melodic elements and developed an aesthetic that shifted sharply between clean and heavily distorted guitars in a way that few bands such as Slint had previously explored. Along with Slint's 1991 album Spiderland, The White Birch would prove to be a huge influence on bands such as Mogwai and Shipping News.
Following an extensive US tour, the band split. Scharin returned to Rex, before working with HiM and June of 44. Immerwahr formed a new band, Raymond.
Songs
An alternative version of "Ides" was released as a 7" split single with The Coctails on Simple Machines in 1993. "Tom" was released as a 7" single on Sub Pop in 1993, backed with "Something New". "Wird" is a full-band version of "W.", which previously appeared as a piano piece on Barely Real.
Reception
In a contemporary review, Select stated that "As Codeine transplant rock from the nightclub to the monastery, they're producing something as disconsolate yet numbingly beautiful as a gang of monks laying down some plainsong remixes of American Music Club's greatest hits. It's a strategy that has more to do with beats per millennium than minute, but this a trance music nonetheless."
Track listing
All songs written by Codeine.
- "Sea" - 7:21
- "Loss Leader" - 4:18
- "Vacancy" - 3:37
- "Kitchen Light" - 3:36
- "Washed Up" - 4:40
- "Tom" - 5:02
- "Ides" - 5:07
- "Wird" - 6:05
- "Smoking Room" - 3:18
Personnel
Songs
1Sea7:22
2Loss Leader4:19
3Vacancy3:37