Renowned for their elaborate packaging, Chicago-based archival label Numero Group have excelled themselves with When I See The Sun. A 6-LP set limited to 1,000 copies, it consists of both of Codeine’s full-length albums – 1990’s Frigid Stars and 1994’s The White Birch – as well as Barely Real, the 1992 EP which separated those two records.
All three come repackaged as double albums – that’s four sides of vinyl for each (and an accompanying CD of the same material for those of a less Ludditean disposition) – chock full of extra material ranging from demos to B-sides, live tracks to alternate takes. In one sitting, it’s an oppressive, decidedly downbeat listen; a seemingly never-ending slowcore dirge of abject melancholy and light-dark brushstrokes of guitar that are almost suspended in space and time – solipsistic, somnambulistic suffering, frozen and then rethawed 20 years later to equally devastating, beautifully self-destructive effect. Completed by sleevenotes from, among others, Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman and The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, When I See The Sun is the ultimate (over) dose of Codeine – one which gazes at shoes and stars at the same time, which soothes as it sobs and which sighs with a lifetime’s worth of sorrow and wonder.
