The Best EPs of 2013

Arguably, a fair chunk of the most interesting music of 2013 has been found on EPs rather than albums. The medium has been in fine fettle for the last twelve months, used as a means for newer artists such as Rosie Lowe and Banks to hint at brilliance to follow on what are some of 2014’s most highly anticipated debut albums, and for comparative veterans like Destroyer and Annie to try out new ideas without the problematic weight of expectation that usually accompanies an LP release from either.

Below, we present a list of ten of our absolute favourites this year, each one a record we implore you to treat your ears with at your earliest convenience.

10. Wolf Alice – Blush EP
What we said:
Blush, opens with the line “Curse the things that made me sad for so long/Yeah, it hurts to think that they can still go on/I’m happy now/Are you happy now?” Even as Ellie Rowsell says she’s happy, you wonder who she’s trying to convince. Add to that the uneasy marriage between the opening guitar twinkles and the shoegaze fuzz that follows, and you have smartly executed optimistic tension. There’s apprehension all over these four songs, actually. “She” opens by channeling a bit of surf rock over twitchy guitars before soaring into a grunge-y chorus. Yet, the bridge finds the music largely dropping out while Rowsell coos, “I had a lover, I had a friend/But don’t deliver nothing for them/You’re having fevers and bad dreams /I’m having neither, just let ‘em breathe.” Sometimes, though, Rowsell aims her casual cyncism at herself: “Look at you, you’re all grown up/Don’t look at me ‘cause I gave up.” It’s almost as if Wolf Alice leave you wanting more on purpose.
Steve Lampiris

9. Joey Bada$$ – Summer Knights EP
What we said:
“For being only 18 years old, Joey Bada$$ sounds like a veteran. I suppose putting out multiple mixtapes while you’re a teenager will do that. Now that he’s poised to climb up from the underground, he’s Summer Knights. Reminding hip-hop fans to pay attention to you might come off as desperate, like a child repeatedly calling for his parents just for its own sake. But, given the talent (and instincts) on display here, it’s more like Joey is saying, “Be a part of this now, before it’s cool.” You have to remember: Joey Bada$$ is barely an adult. A kid this young shouldn’t be making claims like “95 ‘til infinity time/ We in disguise behind enemy lines/ And I just kill it every time” unless he can back them up. And then you remember that Lil Wayne started rapping as a teen and made claims early on that he was the best rapper alive. Joey ain’t there yet, but he wants to be. And you know what? He’s well on his way.”
Steve Lampiris

8. Rosie Lowe – Right Thing EP
What we said:
“While comparisons to Jessie Ware and Jessy Lanza aren’t unfair, Rosie Lowe’s new EP has significantly more in common with Solange Knowles’ much-lauded mini-album True than it does with Ware’s debut. Lowe’s style is much more disjointed, a feature that is hugely reminiscent of Dev Hynes’ footprint on the younger Knowles sister’s work, and it makes for a highly intriguing listen. Her marriage of silky R&B vocals with more electro or alternative style instrumentation is one of the most appealing features of the four-song collection, and proves why she has the potential to be a massive crossover success.”
Rachel Bolland

7. Sampha – Dual EP
What we said:
“The six track Dual EP finds the bedroom soul producer expanding upon his voyeuristic production by – paradoxically enough – condensing it down to the finer points. There’s little of his jittery percussion here, largely leaving the production – bedroom lush, as it may be called – to stand on its own feet. While verdant, his work isn’t so in an expensive-sounding manner; instead, it’s layered without sounding processional. “Beneath the Tree”,finds a watery synth joined with tentative piano lines, the pair of which is surrounded by gently thumping electronics. Similarly, “Without” pulses and squirms under nervous sonics.”
Steve Lampiris

6. Tirzah – I’m Not Dancing EP
This all too slight but brilliant record was the latest piece of music to benefit from the Midas touch of Mica Levi, aka Micachu, whose production across its four songs was frankly out of this world – instantly familiar and yet like nothing these ears had ever heard prior, it had a mutant-industrial-bastardised two-step quality that was impossible to pin down. The pure as snow but not at all showy vocals of her old school friend Tirzah were just as compelling, the defiant mumbles of “I’m not dancing, I’m fighting” turning the title track in to one of the year’s finest, strangest songs. Elsewhere, the comparatively jaunty “Inside Out” felt like listening to a 90s RnB radio station on a transistor radio that’d been thrown in to a bath. They’ll make an album and it’ll be stellar, mark these words.
Thomas Hannan

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5. Destroyer – Five Spanish Songs EP
What we said:
“In the press release announcing the EP, Bejar wrote in his characteristically half-truthful/half-absurd tone “It was 2013. The English language seemed spent, despicable, not easily singable. It felt over for English; good for business transactions, but that’s about it.” So he has chosen to sing in Spanish, which makes for a distinctly odd pairing given Bejar’s affected, theatrical, David Bowie-esque delivery, but Spanish is apparently the only other language he knows. The EP is a collection of covers of the Spanish rock band Sr. Chinarro. Bejar admires Sr. Chinarro’s leader, Antonio Luque, for “his strange words, his melodies that have always felt so natural (this is important), his bitter songs about painting the light.” There’s an obvious affinity here as the same description could be just as easily be applied to Bejar.”
Tyler Boehm

4. FKA Twigs – EP2
Tahliah Barnett provided a visceral imagining of classic trip hop, fed through a sleek, futuristic lens with her second EP, a brilliantly ascension over the rather forthright choice of title: EP2. The Gloucestershire vocalist is a perfect fit for Young Turks, the imprint which launched the careers of The xx and Sampha; her gloom-filled passages “Papi Pacifiy” and “Water Me” vividly evoking the intense nighttime pop of her labelmates. Kanye collaborator Arca proved the ideal foil for Twigs’s classy whispers; his pensive, throbbing beats and roomy sub-bass lurching over her every sultry vowel. Key track “Ultraviolet” encapsulates all we love about the deep, searching emotivity of the record, in its pulsing rhythm and breathless, cathartic breakdown.
Dan Carson

3. Annie – A&R EP
What we said:
“Hot on the heels of 90s-homage single ‘Tube Stops And Lonely Hearts’, Annie returned with a (slightly) more expansive tribute to the decade where shiny pop didn’t just flirt with dance music, but was locked in carnal frenzy with it. Yet, A&R’s step back in time goes further than this period and also celebrates the late 80s PWL heyday, with more than a mere wink at Sonia and a nudge at Mandy Smith. It may be an EP rather than a full album but, hey, with only two long-players to her name in 14 years, Annie fans are, essentially, pop beggars – and beggars can’t be choosers. Besides, this 5-song collection is pretty magnificent.”
Doron Davidson Vidavski

2. – MØ – Bikini Daze EP
What we said:
“Karen Marie Ørsted (AKA MØ)’s output thus far has been sensational. Bikini Daze doesn’t do a damn thing to change that declaration – the EP is an excellent portfolio, advertising her stellar wares. When she ventures out of the gloom and into the daylight, it’s abundantly clear that she’s got a whopping pair of lungs on her, belting out emotion that permeates every recess of the squidgy walnut inside your skull. For her first extended outing, she’s tugged even further into Top 40 territory by pop’s tractor beam. – we see a spritz of various weapons in her arsenal, and though they may be brief snippets, they ensure that we’re not fatigued by her noise. Instead, we’d actually quite like more. A lot more.”
Laurence Day

1. Banks – London EP
What we said:
“With a voice that begins somewhere deep in the heart and gets more seductive and husky as it rises through her body, Banks was immediately on to a winner. In a world where R&B is in danger of being subjected to acts like The Weeknd, complete with Abel Tesfaye’s empty-headed lascivious posturing, it’s a relief that Banks has got bags more emotion and class – and the balance of having such a welcoming voice against the blown-out and icy musical set-pieces. This is a near-faultless EP, and one that’s so incredibly moreish; I’ve played ‘Waiting Game’ more than any other song I can remember this year in the space of a couple of days, and you get the feeling that there’s still much more to come from Banks. If this is the quality of just a handful of tracks, then the sooner we get an album, the better.”
Andy Hannah