The question of what distinguishes an EP from an LP really bugs me severely. I noticed when I was tinkering with Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons’ Wikipedia entry that someone had listed So Young an album when really – it has 7 tracks and goes for 21 minutes – it’s an EP. The group were making that point when they tried to get their record company (Oz/EMI) to sell it cheap, but this wasn’t done, so they switched to Mushroom and then released a bonus ‘album’ with the initial copies of their next album, it was a live record longer than So Young. But when I decided some years ago to separate my LPs from my 12”s (this was originally a decision based on the fact that I had too many records to fit in the allocated shelves, and I figured one solution would be to store the 12”s elsewhere) I knew that it would take me forever to figure out how to separate them, because I just don’t have that kind of brain to go through methodically and spot them all. Today I was putting back a bunch of albums I had out and I kept weeding out these various 12” EPs, and then there are these anomalies. Not So Young, but for instance the Moodists’ Engine Shudder and Double Life (six tracks each). I chickened out with these two actually – they’re still in with the LPs. I have at least three other Moodists 12” records, however, with four or three tracks on them, that I have decided are 12” EPs.
Of course many are confused about whether the definition of an album is about length (somewhere around half an hour, maybe less) or about number of tracks (roughly ten three-or-so minute tracks, as a general measure). Famously (to me) the Numbers’ first album was criticised for its shortness (under half an hour) and the follow-up was named 39.51, named after its length in minutes. I wonder what the shortest album is? I gather in 2013 there was a vinyl compilation called the World’s Shortest Album but it was a 5” disc in a 12” sleeve. I also found a long list of the shortest albums ever, but they are all records specifically contrived to be short for the sake of being short. I was more interested in a commercial offering, standard record. I imagine they go lower than 25 minutes but few would go lower than that, apart of course from So Young. I wonder.
5 comments:
I consider an EP to be 4 tracks and a mini-lp to be up to 5-8. The world may not agree with me.
I hadn't thought about mini-LPs. What about weird things like 12" singles with four tracks on the b-side? I have an Undertones 12" that's like that (hmm, I did have it anyway... I wonder where it is). But the four tracks on the b-side are just stupid live versions of other songs. But it all goes at 45. Is that a mini-LP? I actually think a mini-LP is just an EP that doesn't know it's an EP. By the way I also have said on Wikipedia that as far as I'm concerned the Dislocation Dance Slip That Disc 12" is an album. But it's packaged like an EP (or a single even - it has a die-cut sleeve). What the hell's the thinking there?!
Also, of course, you can have records with almost no tracks. To take a completely extreme example, Soft Machine 3 is a double album with basically one song a side. It's hardly an EP though.
I was thinking about the 12" single conundrum. I suppose it's often different as its is based on being a single release, a featured song, combined with extra tracks and/or remixes etc. Saint Etienne put out a bunch of 12 records and 'CD singles' with 4 tracks, a featured one and 3 new non-album tracks that were good quality (not studio throwaways, more traditionally used to fill out single b-sides) or remixes of the single (see The Bad Photographer, Sylvie, You're In A Bad Way, Shower Scene). I think of these more as EPs than 12"s, though they could arguably be either. Discogs calls the 6-song 'Dev-O Live' an EP, but the commenters are divded between EP and 'Mini' (I side with the latter). One thing seems clear, no one knows.
Jo Jo Zep and the Falcon's 'So Young' = a 12" 7-song 33 1/3 rpm EP - or LP, opinions differ (Discogs says 'mini-album')
Dislocation Dance's 'Slip that Disc' = a 12" 8-song 331/3 rpm EP - or LP, opinions differ (Discogs says 'mini-album') (22:48 minutes, which is longer than 'So Young' but yes, probably too short to be an album contrary to my statement above)
Pere Ubu's "Song of the Bailing Man" = a 12", 11-song 45 rpm LP - no-one says it's not an LP. (34:10 mins)
MEO245's Rites of Passage is a 12", 6-song 33rpm record which Discogs calls an EP but which has the words 'Mini-LP' in the top-right corner of the sleeve.
The Church's 'Remote Luxury' is a 12" 7-song 33 1/3 rpm EP (21:10 minutes). That it's an EP and not an LP is 'proven' by the fact that its tracks were combined with the 'Sing Songs' EP (5-song 45 rpm 15:41 mins) to make an album also called 'Remote Luxury'
I know there are plenty of newer records than these, including the St tine ones but I wanted to stay very pre-CD. I also know this information does not serve to solve anything. I agree with you - no-one knows - but unlike many great mysteries, I think many people don't know they don't know.
St Etienne obviously - autocorrect autocorrected me
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