On their debut album Frigid Stars LP and the follow-on EP Barely Real, Codeine's sound was characterised by agonizingly slow tempos and a stripped-down aesthetic,[2] their songs rarely venturing beyond the combination of a sharp, robust rhythm section underlying crisply ringing guitars.

The White Birch introduced more melodic elements and developed an aesthetic that shifted sharply between clean and heavily distorted guitars in a way that few bands such as Slint had previously explored.

Along with Slint's 1991 album Spiderland, The White Birch would prove to be a huge influence on bands such as Mogwai and Shipping News.

An alternative version of "Ides" was released as a 7-inch split single with The Coctails on Simple Machines in 1993.

In a contemporary review, Select stated that "As Codeine transplant rock from the nightclub to the monastery, they're producing something as disconsolate yet numbingly beautiful as a gang of monks laying down some plainsong remixes of American Music Club's greatest hits.