Frigid Stars

Codeine

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 1, 1994)
• Original Release Date: May 1, 1991
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sub Pop
• ASIN: B0000035EZ
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,782 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow, yes, but not truly cold, December 21, 2000

By	B. Gabel (Southeastern PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The previous reviewers have called Frigid Stars either the darkest or slowest albums they've heard. It's not quite either. Slow, lethargic rhythms are associated with darkness and depression, but this isn't necessarily a tragic album and it does pick up the pace in places.

Frigid Stars works as a singular piece - heck, they've appended an "LP" moniker to the album title - as dynamic shifts mark the progressions instead of distinctive tracks. It all works rather convincingly and makes for some good pre-Radiohead era mood music. Typical indie-style guitar dominates and is backed by a warmish, plowing rhythm section. The band look like a bunch of geeks in the liner notes, but in a music-is-salvation-and-sustenance sort of way.

This album recalls images of Slint's Spiderland. The spoken vocals, the dynamics, the moods, the guitar sounds. It's the closest well-recognized comparison I can think of, although Slint's effort has a bit more emotional depth and really can't be considered slowcore. Interestingly enough, Frigid Stars and Spiderland were recorded within a month of each other, during Summer/Fall 1990. The indie/underground volcanic bubble was on the verge of erupting. Galaxie 500 sounds a bit too popish and perhaps amateur to be compared with Codeine. Galaxie 500 was neither truly slow nor core, but Codeine is certainly slowcore.

If you don't have Slint's Spiderland, get it first and if you like it, come back here.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Single Greatest DEPRESSED album of all time, August 3, 2004

By	Rob Instigator (Houston TX) - See all my reviews

If you like music for the emotions stirred, for the levels of rage, or joy or hate or energy or peace that music can give you, this is the , it is hard to say pinnacle, more like the low-point of depression in music. This album tore through me on first listen and I ROCKED to it, but it was not your typical rocking, it was pure catharsis, so I bought it, then I listened to it again and again and truly realized what a sad, bleak, hopeless, tortured, almost-unbearably painful, BEAUTIFUL LP of music this album is. The music is spare, yet lush and thick and heavy, it is like watching icebergs breakup in slow motion sometimes, yet building such tension that you cannot help but be moved byt the RUSH of it all. It is truly for those who "enjoy" exploring the depths and pinnacles opf what music can draw out of you, because this is not an emotionally easy listen.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great slowcore, November 3, 1998

By A Customer

This album is one of the slowest that I have ever listened to. It is a journey through a sleeping mind, with strange dreams wandering aimlessly. The songs can meld, but in a good way, and the whole album is sort of an insipid and immediate feeling of boredom, like when you know you should be doing something, but can't think of what it is.