Acclaimed Music Forums

I remember making a thread about EPs, and I thought it would be a interesting project. I'm looking to get into EPs more often, and I think it would help flesh out my/others view or perspective on them, but I dunno how much people are willing to go with it.

I wouldn't participate as I don't think I have listened to enough of them to really vote, but would love a guide to get me started!

Asking people to do a top 100 list might be stretch, but if people only submitted top 10s or 20s, I'd be definitely interested.

I think this would be awesome, but it would need a bit of a lead up given how little focus there is on EPs. Maybe a pre-poll or a recommendation thread would be a good idea to give people a chance to hear more EPs.

I think doing something like the final decade polls step could be nice; we just gather a list of something like 50 EPs and everyone listens and ranks them. Those who actually know EPs could help choose which records to put in, and those without as much knowledge have a better way to get involved.

There are several problems to consider if you follow what RYM considers an EP:

*Many EPs are just singles with one or two songs and a few remixes or alternative versions.
*Other EPs contain songs that appeared on an album shortly afterwards, so they were just previews.

If you don't just follow RYM there's the problem of definition. Is Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster" an album or an EP? The lenghth and number of tracks should be between a single and an album, but there's no consensus what exactly that means.

acroamor wrote:Asking people to do a top 100 list might be stretch, but if people only submitted top 10s or 20s, I'd be definitely interested.

Agreed, a top 10 or 20 is definitely doable and actually quite fun.

When it comes to defenition we could use the RYM classification. No restrictions on lengths or number of songs or anything, but just what the artists (or labels) themselves released as EP.

Gillingham wrote:

acroamor wrote:Asking people to do a top 100 list might be stretch, but if people only submitted top 10s or 20s, I'd be definitely interested.

Agreed, a top 10 or 20 is definitely doable and actually quite fun.

When it comes to defenition we could use the RYM classification. No restrictions on lengths or number of songs or anything, but just what the artists (or labels) themselves released as EP.

If that's the case, we should add some sort of stipulation that we don't include EPs that, like bonnielaurel said, were just previews for albums. For example, if you look at the RYM top EPs list, you have a split between EPs that are distinct from LPs (like Burial's Kindred EP or Pavement's Watery, Domestic) that include songs entirely distinct from the studio albums and then you have EPs that consist entirely of songs later included on full albums, like the God Only Knows or Magical Mystery Tour EPs. It's clear that these two types have very distinct purposes, and only the former of the two fits the intended purpose of this poll.

Granted, you also have some EPs that sit in between the two, that contain a mixture of EP-exclusive songs and songs from later albums. I propose that we handle these releases with a one-half rule, so if an album contains 50% or more original material, it can be included. Looking again at that list, we could include, say, Tremolo by My Bloody Valentine because while one of the EPs songs later appeared on Loveless, 75% of it is original material. Conversely, you wouldn't include something like Interpol's self-titled EP, because even though it has a unique song, the remainder of the material included later appeared on Turn on the Bright Lights.

Now, another sticky subject arises when we consider how to include EPs whose songs later appeared on albums, but those albums were specifically indicated as "compilation" albums. I propose that we allow these EPs to be included if, and only if, those albums were disqualified from appearing on the Acclaimed Music albums list. For example, while The Beta Band's The Three E.P.'s is strictly composed of the EPs Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound, and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos, that has not stopped it from being included in our big list. As such, we would disqualify all three of those EPs from inclusion. Conversely, Modest Mouse's Building Nothing Out of Something includes the majority of their earlier Interstate 8 EP, but has not been qualified for the big list. Therefore, we would allow Interstate 8 to be included.

Sorry, didn't expect to make such a wall of text. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please post them. I'm a big fan of EPs (obviously) and I hope this poll becomes a reality.

acroamor wrote:

Gillingham wrote:

acroamor wrote:Asking people to do a top 100 list might be stretch, but if people only submitted top 10s or 20s, I'd be definitely interested.

Agreed, a top 10 or 20 is definitely doable and actually quite fun.

When it comes to defenition we could use the RYM classification. No restrictions on lengths or number of songs or anything, but just what the artists (or labels) themselves released as EP.

If that's the case, we should add some sort of stipulation that we don't include EPs that, like bonnielaurel said, were just previews for albums. For example, if you look at the RYM top EPs list, you have a split between EPs that are distinct from LPs (like Burial's Kindred EP or Pavement's Watery, Domestic) that include songs entirely distinct from the studio albums and then you have EPs that consist entirely of songs later included on full albums, like the God Only Knows or Magical Mystery Tour EPs. It's clear that these two types have very distinct purposes, and only the former of the two fits the intended purpose of this poll.

Granted, you also have some EPs that sit in between the two, that contain a mixture of EP-exclusive songs and songs from later albums. I propose that we handle these releases with a one-half rule, so if an album contains 50% or more original material, it can be included. Looking again at that list, we could include, say, Tremolo by My Bloody Valentine because while one of the EPs songs later appeared on Loveless, 75% of it is original material. Conversely, you wouldn't include something like Interpol's self-titled EP, because even though it has a unique song, the remainder of the material included later appeared on Turn on the Bright Lights.

Now, another sticky subject arises when we consider how to include EPs whose songs later appeared on albums, but those albums were specifically indicated as "compilation" albums. I propose that we allow these EPs to be included if, and only if, those albums were disqualified from appearing on the Acclaimed Music albums list. For example, while The Beta Band's The Three E.P.'s is strictly composed of the EPs Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound, and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos, that has not stopped it from being included in our big list. As such, we would disqualify all three of those EPs from inclusion. Conversely, Modest Mouse's Building Nothing Out of Something includes the majority of their earlier Interstate 8 EP, but has not been qualified for the big list. Therefore, we would allow Interstate 8 to be included.

Sorry, didn't expect to make such a wall of text. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please post them. I'm a big fan of EPs (obviously) and I hope this poll becomes a reality.

I agree with this - most of the songs on the EP should be unique to the EP.