Genre

Slowcore

Slowcore is rock music with the tempo turned right down. Songs move at a crawl, drums are brushed or barely there, guitars ring out with plenty of space between notes, and vocals are quiet, plain and close to the microphone. It sounds sad, and often is, but the real subject is patience: every note gets room to land.

It took shape in American indie rock around the start of the 1990s, when bands like Codeine, Low, Red House Painters and Bedhead went in the opposite direction from the speed and volume of grunge and hardcore. When a loud chord finally arrives on these records, it hits twice as hard for the wait.

The style never had big hits, but its audience has grown steadily, and a new generation of bands and listeners has adopted it as the soundtrack for late nights and headphones. If you want music that slows your pulse down, start here.

Guide

Essential slowcore bands

American Music Club: Mark Eitzel's San Francisco band, writing aching, literate songs through the 1980s that pointed the way for the slowcore bands that followed.
Codeine: New York trio whose glacial tempos, heavy, deliberate chords and wounded, murmured vocals are close to a dictionary definition of the genre.
Low: Duluth band built on the close harmonies of married couple Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, moving from hushed minimalism to fierce, distorted late records.
Red House Painters: Mark Kozelek's band, whose long, confessional songs unfold slowly over gently chiming guitars.
Bedhead: Texas band led by brothers Matt and Bubba Kadane, weaving three guitars into quiet patterns that swell into sudden, cathartic noise.
Idaho: Jeff Martin's long-running California project: dark, heavy guitar tones and slow, brooding songs with a deep low end.
Acetone: Los Angeles trio playing slow, drowsy, twangy rock with a touch of country and a feel all their own.
Songs: Ohia: Jason Molina's project: spare, haunting songs of loneliness and endurance on the border between slowcore and folk.
Arab Strap: Scottish duo of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton: slow, drum-machine-backed songs carrying Moffat's blunt, funny spoken stories of nights out.
Duster: San Jose band whose murky, lo-fi, spacey drift found a big new audience online long after they split; they have since reunited.
Carissa's Wierd: Seattle band of Mat Brooke and Jenn Ghetto who wrote sad, gentle songs with hushed, intertwined vocals.
Horse Jumper of Love: Boston band at the center of the current revival: slow, fuzzy and strange, with dreamlike, mumbled lyrics.

Guide

Start here

Codeine, The White Birch (1994)
Heavy, slow and beautiful: the purest version of the sound.
Low, I Could Live in Hope (1994)
Their debut: minimal drums, two voices and so much space you can hear the room.
Red House Painters, Down Colorful Hill (1992)
Six long songs of heartbreak that take their time and repay it.
Bedhead, WhatFunLifeWas (1994)
Quiet guitar patterns that slowly build to a roar. Patience, rewarded.
Duster, Stratosphere (1998)
Fuzzy, drifting and homemade; the record that found a whole new audience online.
Arab Strap, Philophobia (1998)
Slow, intimate and uncomfortably honest storytelling over hushed guitars and drum machines.
Carissa's Wierd, Songs About Leaving (2002)
Gentle, heartbroken and quietly gorgeous from start to finish.
Horse Jumper of Love, So Divine (2019)
The modern sound: fuzzy, slow and strange, with real weight under the calm.

Radio

On public radio, last 30 days

Last 30 days · via public radio playlists

Public radio airplay for Slowcore artists, last 30 days
Rank	Album	Stations	Days on chart	Spins
1	untitled (halo) untitled (halo) KEXP, KUTX · 1 day on chart	KEXP, KUTX	1	5 spins

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Labels

Labels in this genre

Numero Group

Label

Home to Duster, Eiafuawn & Codeine

Touch and Go Records

Label

Home to Low, Bedhead & Seam

Slowcore

Essential slowcore bands

Start here

Cigarettes After Sex

Current Joys

Duster

Ethel Cain

Low

sign crushes motorist

Sun Kil Moon

The Antlers

Pinback

Fog Lake

Julie Doiron

Red House Painters

Galaxie 500

Julien Baker

Mojave 3

jagger finn

Keaton Henson

Smog

Songs: Ohia

Eiafuawn

Searows

i don't like mirrors

The American Analog Set

Horse Jumper of Love

Pedro the Lion

mage tears

Ruby Haunt

MJ Lenderman

Helvetia

Owen

Nicole Dollanganger

Dead Calm

Giles Corey

Giles Corey

Hovvdy

Arab Strap

They Are Gutting a Body of Water

Teethe

Mark Kozelek

Bark Psychosis

Swell

Dirty Three

Codeine

The Black Heart Procession

Planning for Burial

Bedhead

Trespassers William

Lotte Kestner

Bubble Tea and Cigarettes

Pure X

Lisa Germano

Blood Estate

True Widow

Gravenhurst

Gregor Samsa

Sprain

Flooding

The Crying Nudes

Sophia

Matt Elliott

Dutch Interior

Acetone

Greet Death

Hood

Karate

Ida

Papa M

Knifeplay

King Hannah

American Music Club

Idaho

Midwife

Should

Jason Molina

untitled (halo)

Justin Vernon

Spain