Music: How do you feel about EPs? What are your favorites? Do they get as good as the best LPs?

[Shareefruck]

Seems like we don't dig into this topic much. I've been getting to the point in my "looking for albums to get into" phase where I'm not really clicking with too many undiscovered albums anymore. EPs always seemed to me like the next logical venue to dig deeper into, but they don't seem to get discussed, evaluated and curated as heavily as normal albums do.

How do you feel about them in general? Are EPs as a format just generally inferior to the full length album format? Do you need that length for comparably satisfaction? Are there EPs that are every bit as good as the best albums? Are there acclaimed artists whose best work is an EP? What are the most impressive and complete ones that you can think of, and how do they compare to the full length stuff?

As someone who cares more about front-to-back perfection than quantity (and often would rather that weaker songs just be cut from flawed albums entirely), it feels like there's undiscovered promise there that I've been neglecting and could be up my alley. For example, I recently got really into "Love's Easy Tears" by Cocteau Twins and was a lot more satisfied by it than "Treasure" or "Heaven and Las Vegas". A lot of my favorite Fela Kuti releases fall somewhere between a single and a full length album too. Hoping for more.

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[Spring in Fialta]

Optimo by Liquid Liquid is a masterpiece and I think may be right up your alley. It was published by 99 Records, who released Branca's music, which I believe you greatly enjoy. Roughly 14 minutes long and a handful of tracks. I think of EPs as a superb artistic challenge - how razor tight can you make something without losing anything?

Also, check out Richard McGuire's - Liquid Liquid's bassist - one-off strip of six pages and thirty-five panels titled Here. It's also a little slice of perfection.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Cool topic.. guess my favorite EP would be Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies.
Back in the 90s, I bought a lot of vinyl hardcore & punk EPs. I always wondered why they were so prominent in that scene.. did a lot these bands lack material to fill full albums, or was it too costly for small labels to produce LPs (or a combination of both these factors).. anybody have insight (?)

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Nine Inch Nails has 2 great ones.

Broken:

great end to end with classics like Wish, Happiness in Slavery and Gave Up

Add Violence:

Super fun return to electronic music for them. 'Less Than' is the single and highlight.

 

[beowulf]

Some of my favs

Mother Love Bone - Shine

Nirvana - Blew

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies

Metallica - The $5.98 EP Garage Days Re-visited

Tool - Opiate

 

[frisco]

R.E.M.-Chronic Town

My Best-Carey

 

[Cas]

My initial guess is that about 10% of my collection is stuff from EPs.

The two Celtic Frost EPs (Morbid Tales and Emperor's Return) are classics, though they're usually released as one CD now. Tom's still opening shows with "Procreation (of the Wicked)" long after Celtic Frost's demise.

The Mercyful Fate debut EP is a monster.

I really liked the Macabre Cabaret EP by My Dying Bride - heard it just this weekend for the first time and decided I had to have it.

The Queensryche debut EP was a pretty big deal when it came out. Still pretty classic.

Reverend Bizarre released an EP, Harbinger of Metal, that clocks in at 74 minutes. Yes, they insist that it is an EP and not a full album - perhaps because they put a cover on it.

Chad Davis of Hour of 13 put together a one-off project called The Sabbathian that released one EP, Ritual Rites. Good for fans of occult doom.

Can't but mention Haunting the Chapel.

Vader's been a big EP releaser for years. Thy Messenger is really good, even if it only has one original song (that song is a monster, as is their cover of Judas Priest's "Steeler," which would fit among my ten favorite songs by the Priest).

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Le petit camion rouge by Vladimir Bozar 'N' Ze Sheraf Orkestär is hilarious (and great). Available there:

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

But more seriously, I don't tend to really make a difference between LPs and EPs (some of the albums I love are pretty short in length anyway... Zorn's Elegy is 4 pieces and about 25 minutes long and still considered a full album).

Hepa-Titus' Suicide Is Painless is an EP that ranks with my favorite album.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

I actually prefer EP’s to albums and like the way music releases are heading now

fight me

 

[Shareefruck]

I actually prefer EP’s to albums and like the way music releases are heading now

fight me

I actually wasn't aware that music releases are heading more towards EPs now. Are they?

 

[beowulf]

I actually wasn't aware that music releases are heading more towards EPs now. Are they?

Not sure they really are. It might depend on the type/genre of music and the target audience. I think more pop oriented stuff might like EPs or singles more especially in a digital age. Also depends on if the band is new or established etc.

Album vs EP: A release strategy to accommodate the modern-day listener

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

I don't know too many but this is possibly my favorite. Revel in the 90's slackerdom.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Some of the most influential punk records (especially hardcore punk) of all time were originally released as EP's, Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown being one example. Hardcore in particular was a type of music best suited for a 5- to 10-minute listening session blast rather than a marathon, so it's well-suited for EP's.

I'd rather have albums without filler, to be honest. If you have enough good songs to fill out an LP, make it an LP, but don't waste my time with filler shit to make an EP into an LP.

 

[Hippasus]

7 Seconds (alt.music.hardcore), Gang Green (Preschool), Sick of It All (Sick of It All), Rotting Christ (Passage to Arcturo), Crypt of Kerberos (Cyclone of Insanity), Rottrevore (Copulation of the Virtuous and Vicious), Amorphis (Privilege of Evil), Carpathian Forest (Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods), Necromantia (Ancient Pride) all have EPs that are both good in their own right and to a large extent define them as musicians / groups.

 

[Roo Returns]

Optimo by Liquid Liquid is a masterpiece and I think may be right up your alley. It was published by 99 Records, who released Branca's music, which I believe you greatly enjoy. Roughly 14 minutes long and a handful of tracks. I think of EPs as a superb artistic challenge - how razor tight can you make something without losing anything?

Also, check out Richard McGuire's - Liquid Liquid's bassist - one-off strip of six pages and thirty-five panels titled Here. It's also a little slice of perfection.

This is from 2019. Sal singing.

 

[Roo Returns]

The first EP that I really fell in love with was Miscellaneous Debris by Primus which has five covers of Peter Gabriel, XTC, The Meters, Pink Floyd, and The Residents.

It came out in 92 and I first heard it in 94. I loved all the songs but had no clue who XTC or The Residents were (The Meters at that time to me were a "70s funk band who RHCP covered").

Over the next 4-5 years my musical development would increase as a player and listener and I found all those bands separately, so when I went back to this EP it was one of those "ooooh now I get it!" moments.

 

[Roo Returns]

Some of my favs

Mother Love Bone - Shine

Nirvana - Blew

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies

Metallica - The $5.98 EP Garage Days Re-visited

Tool - Opiate

I'd say 80% of the time I hear music the artist has already reached their commercial peak and the fanbase is built up, and about 19% of the time it's "that album/era" that the artist breaks through.

Jar of Flies is in that other 1%. It was in my opinion the best thing they ever made and they were at the height of their popularity. That EP was everywhere in the winter-spring of 1994. Rotten Apple one of the greatest "soft" openers ever.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

7 Seconds (alt.music.hardcore), Gang Green (Preschool), Sick of It All (Sick of It All), Rotting Christ (Passage to Arcturo), Crypt of Kerberos (Cyclone of Insanity), Rottrevore (Copulation of the Virtuous and Vicious), Amorphis (Privilege of Evil), Carpathian Forest (Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods), Necromantia (Ancient Pride) all have EPs that are both good in their own right and to a large extent define them as musicians / groups.

I cannot believe there's someone else on this site that knows about 7 Seconds and Sick of It All. You, my friend, are awesome. I was not born yet when most of this stuff came out and I'm still rediscovering it today, since the real way to hear it back then was to go to the live shows and get your ass kicked (or in the LA scene, even worse.)

I kind of feel like hardcore lost its way when it turned too metal-ish. I love metal, but hardcore is punk, not metal, and the styles just don't mix well. Compare Necros' later releases (which are crap) with their IQ32 EP and Conquest For Death LP, both of which are outstanding.

 

[Hippasus]

I cannot believe there's someone else on this site that knows about 7 Seconds and Sick of It All. You, my friend, are awesome. I was not born yet when most of this stuff came out and I'm still rediscovering it today, since the real way to hear it back then was to go to the live shows and get your ass kicked (or in the LA scene, even worse.)

I kind of feel like hardcore lost its way when it turned too metal-ish. I love metal, but hardcore is punk, not metal, and the styles just don't mix well. Compare Necros' later releases (which are crap) with their IQ32 EP and Conquest For Death LP, both of which are outstanding.

Thank you! I love punk and hardcore is punk in its purest form; musically at least. I'm like you, I didn't see the bands I mentioned live. Just a few punk shows in Calgary but none of those bands. I just like intense underground music and for me metal and punk are where it's at. The EP format is indeed great for this sort of music.