![]() ![]() The guitars in particular-as well as a splash cymbal that is allowed an unusually rapid beat for the rest of the song-begin to accelerate, their sound no longer spaced out, adding up to a wave of noise as Immerwahr sings the chorus with more need. "D" starts the album and is kind of jarring in its way: one big beat allowed to hang around followed by a slowly single-picked guitar, repeated, then lethargic movement forward into Stephen Immerwahr's rather somber and morose vocals, listing what "D" is for-"'D' for effort/'D' for intent/'D' because you pay the rent." The pacing is incredibly deliberate, but for his voice, you might think this was intended to be played at 45rpm, though none of the instruments have the stretched distortion of a recording played back too slowly. ![]() Is that a designator, because this is an LP? Is it part of the actual title? If it is, is there some particular need for it to be? I've settled on the same thing as everyone else, I guess: the art says "LP" at the end, so we treat it as part of the title. I do have to add that I find it frustrating when bands name albums things like Frigid Stars LP. Whatever it was, I knew nothing of them at all, other than genre designations that had only vague meaning at most, which was in no way a method of understanding what they were or sounded like. Maybe it was my intrigued object-lust for the records when I saw how they were put together (I'm not above being suckered in by a well- made record package or sleeve art or the like). Maybe there was a comment about how good they were in something I read, or maybe their name came up in connection with Galaxie 500, who I was rather into the last year or so. I'm not sure what told me to check out Codeine, though. So far, this has been an extremely successful approach to take. I have a longtime policy of thinking there must be something to an album that receives treatment like this but doesn't have the kind of visibility that tells you that maybe it's just something they think a whole ton of people will re-buy because a whole ton cubed bought it in the first place. Inside you even find full, 12x12" stapled booklets of liner notes: history, essays, recording and personnel notes-all the stuff I'd want, or close enough to it. Add in the fact that it's also an expanded LP (with a whole second platter that is composed of the bonus material on the CD), and it's just too darn tempting. Alongside that, an expanded CD is included with them that assembles demos and assorted other tracks not originally included. You can actually see the vertical fold on the front cover where it opens, rather than simply folding directly at the spine. If you pick any of these Codeine reissues up, in the literal sense, you immediately notice how thick they are: about that of a triple LP of decent weight vinyl. Frigid Stars LP was the first album, so it seemed like a logical starting point for me as well. I've worked enough retail that, considering they were five or ten minutes from closing, I decided to just grit my teeth and grab one. I asked the owner of CD Alley in Chapel Hill (whose band may show up here later, if I continue intermittent reviews of 7"s) if he had a stance, and he said unfortunately he had not personally gone in the direction of Codeine, and had never heard one singled out. While I was, in majority, picking up CDs I'd been eyeing for sometime, I also decided that the temptation of the Codeine reissues was just too great. So, with a measure of money in hand (that which I thought I could spare), I decided to "clean house" on my desired purchases at the then-local stores. Around the time I moved out of my last home, I realized that I was moving somewhere that record stores were not going to be anything like convenient (and so they aren't-it's at least an hour's drive to find new records). ![]()
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