Favourite EPs of all times

[Grunch]

You're Welcome - kinda hard to forget such a great EP!!

[profpike]

A bit of a clarification.

As this thread shows-the EP did kind of come into its own during the 80s among "new wave" artists (whatever that means. What I meant in my original post was that the EP in the states was really not a big part of the music industry when it came to more mainstream artists.

The EP had long been a staple of the UK and Euro music scenes (don't know about other parts of the world-I know Aussie artists had EPs-but OZ is very brit-influenced)and as record bums can tell you big time artists like the Beatles and the Stones had EPs out rather routinely.

In the US the EP was not a big part of the mainstream scene of the 80s.

www.blogomonster.com/profpike

[Spaz]

One of my fave U.S. EPs was the WIDE BOY AWAKE EP on RCA.

It was actually a collection of tracks from their first 2 UK 12" singles, but I think it counts...

And Zero Hour by THE PLIMSOULS was classic...



SPAZ
Born of innocence. Free of ignorance.

[obs]

[i]Careful not to use standard 12" singles with remixes....
...
•Duran Duran: 'Night Romantics' E.P.[/i]

Hey, come on. Night Romantics is pretty much a 12" single ... sort of a two in one 12".


[i]•Duran Duran: 'Carnival' E.P.[/i]

I just recently thought that a remastered Carnival would be a great idea, with all the stuff that should have been on the Rio remastered, such as the full version of Lonely in Your Nightmare.


Another of my favourites that hasn't been mentioned yet:
Images in Vogue - Rituals

I wonder if Canada was more into EPs than the US. There was a Platinum Blonde EP that preceded their first album [:)].

[rotator]

[quote][i]Originally posted by obs[/i]
<br>[i]Careful not to use standard 12" singles with remixes....
...
•Duran Duran: 'Night Romantics' E.P.[/i]

Hey, come on. Night Romantics is pretty much a 12" single ... sort of a two in one 12".

[/quote]

point taken.

[KYYX4ever]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SomebodySomewhere[/i]
<br>
Berlin - "Pleasure Victim"
[/quote]

is this really considered an EP[?] I never knew that! 7 songs...just seemed like a short album to me.

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
<br>is this really considered an EP[?] I never knew that! 7 songs...just seemed like a short album to me.
[/quote]
To me that's classically EP. The 4-song 12" with 3 b-sides is more suspect. Anyone still have those cool 10" EPs?!

[eight6]

Tough to choose just one, so I'll list three:

Play - Red Movies

Not a bad song on the ep...every one very listenable, and a rare enough piece of vinyl that it doesn't get overplayed.

Eskimos & Egypt - The Cold

Actually a 7" ep with 3 songs. Again all fantastic, with one of the true gems of the 80's on it; Screams & Whispers.

Ian North - Rape Of Orchids

Little known ep that turned out to be the last gasp for Ian. Self produced & privately released (if I remember) it is IMO a masterpiece esp. Sex, Lust, You.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/dbince/eight.gif"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/dbince/number6.gif">

[profpike]

Ya know-I can't believe I started this thread-namechecked Andy Partridge and then foget to mention-25 O'Clock by the Dukes of the Stratosphear-

can you imagine pitching this to the record company?-A mid-chart band wants to do an EP under assumed names and in the style of the late 60s.

The results? Psonic Psunspot is more consistent-but this is just a big bag of fun and you have to admire the audacity.

As for the Bangles-EP: All over the place was, again, a more consistent, mature, realized effort-But the EP has a "scruffY" funness to it and Susanna Hoffs' kittenish vocals had more of a growl than a purr on the EP-a good record that was a harbinger of things to come.

www.blogomonster.com/profpike

[rotator]

I think it should be an unsaid prerequisite that an artist on their freshman effort need to put out an E.P., almost a demo if you will. It should be a law. As a collector there is nothing I like better than early demo stuff, before a producer tarts it up too much...

ooops and I forgot a couple:

Oingo Boingos first 10" E,P,
Ultra Vivid Scenes "Staring At the Sun" E.P.
Ultravox" Hymn" (Japanese Ep) and yes this counts as an EP goddamnit

[Surly]

Human League - [i]Fascination![/i]
Echo & The Bunnymen - [i]Echo & The Bunnymen[/i]
November Group - [i]Work That Dream[/i]
The Rockats - [i]Make That Move[/i]
The Bongos - [i]Numbers With Wings[/i]
Simple Minds - [i]Sister Feelings Call[/i]
Kissing The Pink - [i]Kissing The Pink[/i]
Wide Boy Awake - [i]Wide Boy Awake[/i]
Art Of Noise - [i]Into Battle with The Art Of Noise[/i]
Let's Active - [i]Afoot[/i]
Burning Sensations - [i]Burning Sensations[/i]
Industry - [i]Industry[/i]
The Blow Monkeys - [i]Forbidden Fruit[/i]
The Cure - [i]The Walk[/i]
U2 - [i]Wide Awake In America[/i]


"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

[SomebodySomewhere]

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by SomebodySomewhere[/i]
<br>
Berlin - "Pleasure Victim"
[/quote]

is this really considered an EP[?] I never knew that! 7 songs...just seemed like a short album to me.
[/quote]

Geffen priced it as an EP. Hell, U2's "Under a Blood Red Sky" was priced as an EP. That one was pushing it. I think the over/under for an EP/LP tended to be 7/8, although obviously the running times factored heavily. Plenty of disco and prog rock albums with 15-minute songs had 3-5 tracks and qualified as full-length.

[NuWaveRx]

Two more...

REM--Chronic Town
The Bluebells--Epon.

[Spaz]

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by SomebodySomewhere[/i]
<br>
Berlin - "Pleasure Victim"
[/quote]

is this really considered an EP[?] I never knew that! 7 songs...just seemed like a short album to me.
[/quote]

E.P., as we all know, stands for Extended Play and didn't actually have any set amount of tracks. I've purchased E.Ps that were 3 songs up to 8 songs, but generally fell in the 4-6 song range and was initially meant to be used as one of a few different things (and I'm referring to the U.S. market in general):

1. Introduction to an artist: some labels didn't have the confidence to release a full album by a band so they would just throw something out on the market that was more substantial than a single (7" or 12") but cheaper than an LP.

2. Stop-gap: Sometimes an artist didn't have enough material for an album (or perhaps an album was scrapped bar a handful of tracks) and a label would release an E.P. to keep a band's profile up while they toiled away in the studio working up an album (or were on tour).

3. Collection: Many artists would release non-album singles overseas and since the U.S. companies didn't care enough to do that, they'd just throw a few singles (A and B-sides) together on an EP and release it in the U.S.

4. Cost: If it was a self-released E.P., a lot of times, the band didn't have enough money for studio time and would 'perfect' a handful of songs in the studio and release whatever they could afford.

Then again, I'm sure that there's other reasons as well, but these are what I've encountered over the years when talking to folks in the bidness....


SPAZ
Born of innocence. Free of ignorance.

[rotator]

Great assesment SPAZ.....

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