Landlords – Codeine (EP)
Release Date: 26th August 2022
Label: Church Road Records
Bandcamp
Genre: “Heavy” Shoegaze, Drone, Post-Hardcore, Post-Punk.
FFO: Nothing, Hundredth, Whirr.
Review By: Andy Spoon
New Zealand’s Landlords have been working on and off together since 2017, ultimately coming back together in force during some of the covid-related matters, causing some of the members to change locations before reuniting for their 2022 EP, Codeine. Landlords are one of only a few New Zealander bands in the genre right now, of consequence, so expectations are definitely mixed. I for one, am excited, being a fan of the shoegaze and “slow rock/metal” genre, which often mixes elements of drone-y, shoegaze-y rock with a mix of faster and slower tempos often found in post-metal or post-rock music.
Codeine is an example of how making an EP can leave listeners wanting more and mildly disappointing them when not delivered. That is not to say that there is anything bad about the EP in general, but that there are some elements are just so damn good that they warrant further “leaning in”, but don’t give the audience that sweet relief of getting what they want. This is not always harmful to an EP or project, as the “blue balls” effect of some music is exactly what the artists intended, leaving the audience wishing for one more heavy chorus or musical interlude, one more transition, or a couple more minutes of certain songs.
The EP starts off with a lot of energy with my favorite song, Perfect Life, a very typical shoegaze track with a super-high level of energy, force, and wailing reverb. It’s just natural to crank the volume and allow the heaviness of the tone to “wash over you” as some say. The point of a good shoegaze track is to make the listener be hit by the “wall of sound”, or the equal mixture of levels across the board, never allowing one or two elements to come more “forward” in the mix. It just feels overwhelming and powerful, regardless of the tonality, the lyrics, or even the quality, for that matter.
That is not to say that quality doesn’t matter, but shoegaze was largely an effort to take crappy punk and hardcore music in the 90s and make it better by cranking the reverb and levels and bowling audiences over. Perfect Life is a fantastic example of that. However, it abruptly ends up being the only song like this on the whole EP, something I was very sad about by the end. Each other track starts with gentle instrumentation and focuses on dynamics that go from interlude-like (think Explosions in the Sky or Balmorhea), to big and full shoegaze crescendos that are loud and hollow-sounding with mountains of expression.
The guitars are balanced between clean and overdriven, but they never truly cross into anything that gets too out-of-balance with the rest of the tone. The Bass guitar is where the heaviness is most evident, almost always having some super-heavy fuzz or overdrive to turn up the proverbial intensity in the melody section. Vocally, the singer has a voice much like Corey Taylor’s clean vocals, something that is neither bad nor good, but just something of note. It has a clear tonality to it that really seems to work with the rest of the mixing and mastering at times. Naturally, the vocals get washed-out during the “shoegaze-y” highs, but often come back down to clean during the more melodic sections.
Drums are generally-restrained and clearly influenced by the post-rock style of “big sound” that often comes from wash-riding big cymbals. It absolutely fits the “white noise” element that creates the weighty blanket of sound that Landlords creates. As a whole EP, I think that Codeine lacks 2-3 more uptempo songs that are headbang-worthy, as I just wanted more and more of that to balance the dynamically-led tracks 2 through 5. None of them really miss the mark, but they lack those few moments that would really bring the ebb and flow levels further apart in amplitude, something I really would have liked. I also think that it feels like some of the tracks were a solid minute too-short. I enjoyed the flow and sound that Landlords was creating, hoping only that they would swing the track around for one more bit “chorus” or interlude to keep the emotive moments going. Given that there is only 5 tracks on the EP, I would not have minded some longer tracks in general.
Overall, I think that Codeine is a great “heavy” shoegaze EP that lacks a few key elements to be up there with bands like Nothing or Hundredth, which have some more of the fast tracks that I think sound excellent with Landlords’ sound palette. I would have liked to see some more on this EP just because it’s good, not because it’s short. I think that perhaps their future albums ought to be great if they are hitting the mark like this on an EP-length album. I’m pumped to see what they do in the future. Is this as good as Rare by Hundredth? No. But I think that these guys absolutely can fight in that weight class of shoegaze bands. 
(3 / 5)
