Writer Ted Gioia has just posted a Substack article about how the most popular music in recent years has slowed in tempo and favours a minor key (the sad notes). He posits that sad slow songs are no longer the music that couples smooch on the dance floor to, but are instead the music that people isolate and reflect their loneliest emotions in. It may be even down to a rise in narcissism. He has a screenshot of the barrage of Spotify playlists that one can get their instant hit of darkness from. Take your pick from Sad Crying Mix, Lonely Sad Mix or Sad Love Song Mix.
He has some numbers to back this up, sourced from Chris Dalla Riva’s website. Note the post millennium dramatic rise in minor key songs.
Let’s look at the tempo numbers. Whilst the BPM’s below are an average they show a trend. 116bpm isn’t a funeral procession by any stretch of the imagination – Queen’s I Want to Break Free clocks in at this pace, whilst the 2005 peak of 130bpm would help Pink to Get This Party Started. Things do appear to be getting slower though.
What’s the relevance of this to a gig on a hot late summer’s evening in North London? Well, Codeine operate in this minor key slow temp slow spot. I don’t expect them to be bothering the Spotify AI generated playlists any time soon, but one can hope.
I wrote about Codeine previous here. The summary is they were cult American band who made a couple of albums and an EP, faded away to pursue careers (some away from music), reformed briefly and are now completing their first European tour in over ten years. The music they left behind is of such a brief and perfectly formed profile that it appears that any attempt to create anything new will sully what came before.
I confess that 5 consecutive days of plus 30 Centrigrade weather doesn’t naturally move on toward a glacial Codeine gig. The Garage in Highbury was hot, sweaty and possibly a Covid petri dish.
Codeine’s music worked wonderfully though. Such minimalist music needs to be executed perfectly at such a snail like pace. The band all need to come into each crashing wave of blissful negativity right on cue, such as on Jr. What they achieved was majestic and joyous in a rather perverse way. The crowd had waited years to experience this evening and there was much love and affection in the room.
The dynamic put me in mind of Glasgow’s Mogwai, in songs such as Word. It wasn’t just the quiet/loud thing. It was the ability to conjure emotions from a relatively simple palette. Less is very much more. There is no compromise. There’s black, white and a little grey.
There is an emotional reticence in the performance. The band don’t over emote. Stephen Immerwahr’s vocals are low down in the mix, never rising in anger or passion. Drummer and occasional bass player Chris Brokaw keeps metronomic time yet knows when to hold and drag. John Engle’s single Telecaster is sparely distorted but has the monochromatic heft and crunch to paint those Gerhard Richter seascapes.
The lack of any extraneous production on their recordings gives them an ageless quality. Everything is clean and spare, with nothing that dates the sound of the music. I think this continues to protect their legacy and make them approachable and relevant. Whilst there was a few middle aged people at the Garage, there were plenty of a much younger demographic.
I’m so glad I dragged my overheated carcass onto the 43 bus and experienced the unique sound of Codeine on such a rare trip to the UK. I’m still trying to process if it made me Sad Crying or Lonely Sad. I may need AI to help me. These things clearly matter.
BlackCountryRock 
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