Released: 15/09/23
New York's slowcore masters Codeine only recorded two studio albums, Frigid Stars (1990), and The White Birch, from 1994, the year in which they split. Both are incredible, and so, given the relative dearth of material, the fantastic live album What About the Lonely?, recorded in 1993 at Chicago's storied Lounge Ax, during Codeine's tour supporting Mazzy Star, is a boon for fans of the seminal alt-rockers. Famed for their heroically slow and bleak songs, which make slowcore peers like Mark Kozaleks' Red House Painters sound positively chipper, and conversely makes sad girls and boys very happy indeed (reader, I am of this ilk), the already considerable density of Codeine's studio sound – akin to 'solid air', to lift a term from John Martyn – is even more visceral on the beautifully captured selection of tracks that make up What About the Lonely?, which includes two of my personal favourites, the astounding 'Cave-In' and 'Loss Leader'. Oh and the brilliant David Grubbs of Gastr Del Sol (the band he started with Jim O'Rourke) also joins the band on stage for two songs. If you like Codeine, What About the Lonely? will make you extremely happy-sad in the best of ways.