I recently joined the Roster Music Club, and they are currently having an "EP Wars" vote and discussion. This prompted me to look back through all my year-end best-of lists and compile my favorite EPs all into one list.
- Category 1: Studio session, all new songs (at least 3 songs and up to 7?), none of which appear on any full-length albums. (Or if any songs do show up on an LP, they are a different recording and/or arrangement.)
- Category 2: Collection of assorted b-sides, demos, live tracks, etc.
- Category 3: Expanded single, highlighting one or two tracks off an LP (same recording), with added bonus tracks (a maxi-single really, as many EPs are probably not really EPs, but in reality maxi-singles).
- Category 4: Songs leftover from an LP recording session, released months or years later as a new release.
Top 20 EPs of all-time:
1. Thrice- Water (The Alchemy Index, 2007)
Much of the time I will call The Alchemy Index my favorite Thrice album; however, it isn't an album. It is four 6-song EPs, and Water is the best one. Not only that, Water is near the top of Thrice's entire body of work. It is so unique and so different from their usual sound. They have continued to include similar tracks on most of their albums, but never six songs in a row in the electronic style. Additionally, Water is a blue 10" record and a part of the elaborate The Alchemy Index 4 x 10" book.
2. The Gloria Record- A Lull in Traffic (2000)
As Chris Simpson and Jeremy Gomez shifted their creative pursuits to The Gloria Record after Mineral, their first two releases were EPs. I found the first a little redundant, but this second EP absolutely blew my mind. The title track and The Arctic Cat remain two of the best songs Simpson has ever written. Remastered and reissued on vinyl for it's 20th anniversary in 2020.
3. Poor Old Lu- Straight Six (1995)
(Unrelated to the band or music, this is only one of 3 EPs in my top-20 that are not on Bandcamp. Better statistic than I expected. Not surprisingly, all three are former Tooth & Nail bands, as that label remains adverse to the Bandamp platform. This EP was not on Tooth & Nail however).
Following two LPs, Lu hit the studio to self-produce some songs that were intentionally different than their previous recordings. The result was something experimental, creative, profound, and what many Lu fans call their favorite release from the band. Straight Six is being reissued on vinyl this year and it will include two new songs, both covers recorded this year ("Straight Eight"?). Not only that, Lu is playing two shows this year, their first in over 20 years, and I am traveling to Seattle in September to see them at the Showbox!
4. Brandtson- Trying to Figure Each Other Out (2000)
At the time of it's release, this EP was so important. Important to me, as I resonated with the lyrics so much and it was the soundtrack of a rough break-up. Important to the band, as it was the first release Brandtson put out that reflected the fun and energy of their live shows. At the time this EP was released I was fortunate enough to see Brandtson play 3-4 times a year for a few straight years. While Fallen Star Collection is outstanding, it is full of songs that are longer and at a slower tempo than what you would experience at a Brandtson show.
5. Middle Kids- New Songs For Old Problems (2019)
2019 was strangely the year of the EP. For most of the previous decade, there were not as many EPs being released, and then bizarrely that year it was full of strong EPs. So much so that New Songs for Old Problems is actually my favorite release of 2019--I prefer it to all the LPs released that year. I actually put my top-5 EPs of 2019 above my top-20 LPs in my annual year-end list. I saw Middle Kids play last summer, and despite loving every second of the show, they did not play my top song from any of their releases! I am not sure I have ever attended a show like that, where the band omitted my personal favs from all their albums from their setlist. In the case of this EP, that would be "Real Thing", and speaking of that song, check out this live acoustic version of the song.
6. Sixpence None the Richer - Rosemary Hill (2024)
I gushed about this EP so much last year when it was released, as it marked the return of the band, and is among their best work. I had the privilege to interview all the band members last year, and was able to ask Matt Slocum and Leigh Nash directly about why an EP at this stage. They shared that it was a complicated decision, and they didn't want it perceived as a cop-out (not doing a full length). Ultimately they shared these songs marked a certain time period and thematically worked well together, so they released the six songs as an EP.
7. Pedro the Lion- Whole (1997)
If Brandtson's EP is "important", this one is life-changing. Life-changing for me, as it was my introduction to David Bazan, who I have seen in concert nearly 20 times and have bought almost everything he has ever released. Additionally, I find him one of the most honest and transparent people I have ever "known", and he has had a radical impact on culture at large. Besides listening to his music, I also go out of my way to listen to all podcast interviews I can with him, and there are dozens out there. Life-changing for Bazan, as it marked a shift for him to a frontman and songwriter and into a career he has continued for decades. I bought the CD version of Whole from a Christian bookstore only because of the artwork and that it was on Tooth & Nail; I had no idea what the music would sound like.
8. Pinback- Offcell (2003)
I discovered Pinback in a weird way as my brother loaded up an MP3 CD for me full of stuff and mailed it to me in Zambia. I don't know specifically if Offcell was included, but 2003 was the first year I heard Pinback. These 5 songs could be the best stretch of 5 in the band's deep catalog. In 2017 this EP was packaged with 1999's Some Voices EP into a 9-song vinyl record called Some Offcell Voices, and if you were to only buy one Pinback record, this might be the one!
9. This Beautiful Mess- Second Mountain Songs (2021)
2021 marked the return of This Beautiful Mess after a hiatus that spanned over a decade. I was fortunate enough to interview the band that year and you can read it here. And then this year they released a new LP The Soft Powers.
10. Mates of State- You're Going to Make It (2015)
At this time this EP was released, I remember an interview with Jason and Kori in which they mentioned they were shifting to EPs and away from full-length albums. While I was not enthused by that decision, I was excited for more Mates music, one way or the other. Welp, this ended up being the last Mates of State new music for nearly a decade before they dropped a new single in 2024. Thankfully they are touring again right now (I saw them last summer) and an LP is supposedly on the way.
11. Splendora (Tess Wiley)- Bootleg Pre-release version (1995)
Of all the EPs in my top 20, this is the one I might be cheating calling category 1. At this time of its' release, all 5 songs were being released for the first time, and 4 from the same recording session. And it would end up being years before any of the songs would be released again, all with new arrangements. This EP is so unique, I am going to go into a little more detail about it.
To begin, as Tess Wiley started her solo career, she attempted to use a band name for her music. She first picked Splendora before learning of another band with the same name, and she quickly pivoted to Phantasmic as her second moniker. The year after this EP was released independently it was repackaged as half of the Fluffy vs. Phantasmic album on Flying Tart Records in 1996. Tess would only use the Phantasmic on more more release, a full-length covers album in 1998. She then recorded under her own name for the rest of her prolific career, and a new album will probably be released later this year!
Next, I actually approached Tess' directly about putting her music on Bandcamp, as so much of her older stuff is OOP and hard to find. I worked with her to get her 90's recordings up there, so check it out! With this EP in mind, I designed the artwork--the cover art you see on Bandcamp is actually a photo I took on my hardwood floor of my home of the CD inserts for the two different versions I explained above. Then I recommended the new title "Bootleg Post-release Splendora vs. Phantasmic EP" to honor both the original band names and to designate that we were putting this on Bandcamp 20+ years later.
Now, on to the songs:
- "Skinny Little Line" This is the original version, recorded for this EP with Jeremy Gomez on bass and brother Gabriel Wiley on drums--Mineral's rhythm section. The song was rerecorded in radical different form and included on Tess' 2001 debut full-length Rainy Day Assembly.
- "Out of My Head" Same, see above. The song was rerecorded in radical different form and included on Tess' 2001 debut full-length Rainy Day Assembly.
- "Rainy Day Assembly" This track was a leftover from the Sixpence None the Richer This Beautiful Mess sessions. Tess wrote it, Matt Slocum played guitar, Dale Baker played drums, JJ Plasencio played bass, and Leigh Nash was going to sing lead on it. But ultimately Sixpence didn't use the song and Chris Colbert helped Tess retrieve the tape from the recording studio and then Tess recorded her vocals on top of the track that had been incomplete. The song was rerecorded in radical different form and included on Tess' 2001 debut full-length Rainy Day Assembly.
- "Happy Now?" Same as tracks 1 & 2 , see above. The song was rerecorded in radical different form and included on Tess' 2004 debut album Not Quite Me.
- "Eyes Without a Face" Billy Idol cover otherwise unreleased.
12. The Lassie Foundation- California (1996)
The debut from Wayne Everett and Eric Campuzano, with help from Andy Prickett, after the original breakup of The Prayer Chain. Noiser and rawer than anything the band would put out in the future, and while their songwriting only got stronger, this EP marked the time period so well. Reissued a few years ago and released on vinyl for the first time.
13. Stavesacre- Against the Silence (2009)
Stavesacre released two fantastic EPs, this one and Bull Takes Fighter, and according to a recent interview with Jeff Bellew, they are set to be reissued on a combined vinyl release "soon". Against the Silence is/was awesome as it marked the return of Bellew to the band after he had been away for a decade. I have always found him so essential to the band's creative process that everything they recorded without him was to me of a lesser quality.
14. Kerith Ravine- The Drafting Sessions (1999)
I am guessing this is probably the least known of all the EPs in this list, and it was fairly "lost" to everyone until a remaster and first-time digital release in 2024. I have loved it since a friend handed me the CD in 1999. While broadly remasters/remixes often don't sound much different, this was a huge, important improvement as the original recording, with great songs, sounded awful. This is the debut group of songs from Michael Shepard, who went on to front Lovedrug for a couple decades. I wrote a Kerith Ravine vs. Lovedrug essay in 2015 that still gets a ton of reads, as a theme of it is why we prefer music we hear at certain time periods more than others even if it is not technically as "good."
15. Caracara- Better (2019)
From a physical standpoint, this is the only EP in my list that is a 7" record, and a beautiful one at that. The title track may be the band's best song.
16. Manchester Orchestra- The Valley Of Vision (2023)
If you have ever seen Manchester Orchestra live, the sound of this EP is the exact opposite of their live show. This is the quieter side of Manchester Orchestra but with six of their best songs, and was released with a 26-minute film.
17. Stay Inside- Blight (2022)
Stay Inside, despite still being a "new" band to most people, to me has three "eras" of music, and this EP marked the end of the second era. Era 1 was a couple of cassettes in which Bartees Strange was in the band as a songwriter and co-lead singer. Era 2 began with the "Offseason" single, which based upon comments I have heard from the band I believe to be the first song they recorded after Bartees left the band (they played this song when I saw them last month). Era 2 marked them signing to No Sleep Records, releasing their debut album Viewing in 2020, and then this Blight EP. Era 3 is underway, with more refined songwriting and settling into their groove with 2024's Ferried Away (my AOTY last year) and the upcoming 2025 album Lunger coming in October.
18. Blank Books- EP1 (2017)
When I put together this list, I assumed Rose Blossom Punch's So Sorry To Disappoint You would make the top 20. However, I realized I greatly prefer this other Aaron Sprinkle fronted-project, with Jesse Sprinkle on drums. It came at the perfect time, as I had recently written my top-25 Aaron Sprinkle songs blog post in which I lamented his shift away from guitar and into electronics and programming. Blank Books was a fantastic return to guitar-based rock'n'roll. Here's hoping there is an EP2 at some point!
19. boygenius- boygenius (2018)
I don't think anyone could have ever predicted how much boygenius would explode into worldwide fame 5 years later. Unlike their debut album, in which Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker co-write many of the songs, this EP is more straightforward with each musician contributing two of their own tracks.
20. Sleigh Bells- Kid Krushev (2017)
I have been trying to track this down on vinyl forever; anyone want to sell me a copy for a reasonable price? It was put out as a fairly limited RSD exclusive when it was released, and used copies go for $50 or more on Discogs. While most Sleigh Bells is fun, high-energy, up-tempo, and danceable rock music, Kid Krushev is an outlier at is fairly dark thematically and more down-tempo; a unique part of their discography.
Honorable mention: Velour 100
I am not picking a specific EP here as the band released two (or three, depending on how you look at it). The band was originally called simply Velour and released an independent cassette called The Rainwater E.P. in 1995. One song from that cassette wound up on a Tooth & Nail Artcore comp after they signed to the label, another was re-recorded for their debut album Fall Sounds in 1996, and then the rest of the songs were reworked and re-arranged for the Songs from the Rainwater E.P. CD in 1997. All those recordings featured original vocalist Amon Krist, but then multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Trey Many used five other vocalists for the rest of the band's lifespan. The final vocalist was Rosie Thomas (prior to her solo career), who performed with the band and sings on the For An Open Sky EP, which was sadly Velour 100's final release. On the topic of Rosie singing with Velour 100, earlier this week I came across (again) the unbelievable Velour 100 Cornerstone 2000 performance on YouTube. The sound quality is surprisingly good, features David Bazan on keys, and when they play my fav song by the band "Dolphin Grey" (co-written by Tess Wiley), it gives me goosebumps.
