You’ve heard all the old sayings: Great things come in small packages. Size doesn’t matter. There’s perhaps no greater evidence of this than the EP. Whether it was to tease an upcoming full-length or find a home for some odds and ends that didn’t quite make the cut during the last album cycle, the EP was alive and well in 2015. We polled our writers and editors, and these are the ones that drew the most votes—the 10 best EPs of 2015.
10. River Whyless, River Whyless
Sometimes it can be hard to stand out in the crowd when you’re producing experimental folk rock. Plenty of groups are capable of harmonizing well and turning simplistic rhythms into infectious anthems, but it’s rare to find artists who can evoke as much emotion as River Whyless. This Asheville, N.C.-based quartet crafts songs that immerse the listener into a time and place with well-defined emotional arcs. River Whyless EP is the band’s first release since their 2012 debut, A Stone, A Leaf, An Unfound Door, and the past three years of touring have clearly given the band a powerful sense of self-confidence. River Whyless’ eponymous EP showcases the band’s willingness to shy away from expectations and explore its sonic horizon with compelling results.—Grant Golden (Read the full review here)
9. Diet Cig, Over Easy
Diet Cig’s debut EP, Over Easy, is over almost before you know it—it clocks in at just around 10 minutes—but in that short timeframe, singer/guitarist Alex Luciano and drummer Noah Bowman still manage to pack a punch and pique our interest. If you dug Alvvays last year, don’t let this duo fly under your radar. Over Easy is all lovely vocals over propulsive guitar and distortion, making for a straightforward but insanely catchy listen that leaves us anxious to hear what Luciano and Bowman will be up to in 2016.
8. FKA twigs, M3LL155X
FKA twigs’ surprise EP, M3LL155X (pronounced “Melissa”) was released in August along with a 16-minute short film that mused on pregnancy, creativity and femininity and gave the project more of a performance-art feel. But even without the visuals, M3LL155X is a fantastic next step for FKA twigs, the perfect followup to her LP1. Her evolution as an artist is apparent; she’s at the top of her game, and as she sings on “Figure 8,” “I am an angel/Hush now/My back wings will give you the hardest slap that you’ve ever seen.”
7. Girl Band, The Early Years
They didn’t release their excellent full-length Holding Hands With Jamie until the fall, but back in April, Rough Trade compiled some of Girl Band’s previous work into the aptly named The Early Years EP (though the songs it contains are technically not the noise-punk band’s earliest). It serves as an introduction to the Dublin quartet for most listeners on this side of the pond, and as Robert Ham writes, “Their secret is that they didn’t bother to waste any time trying to ape the sound of their influences (The Pop Group, The Birthday Party). Instead, they grabbed the constituent parts—guitars strung with razor wire, a vocalist venting his spleen with as much unhinged energy as his skinny body can muster—and constructed a new beast of a noise with it.”
6. Thundercat, The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam
He had some prominent guest spots on albums by Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington this year, and so it should come as no surprise that a few of Thundercat’s collaborators return the favor on his 16-minute EP, The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam. Washington turns up on a handful of tracks, along with Flying Lotus and even Herbie Hancock. But Thundercat remains front-and-center, offering ethereal soundscapes and the occasional irresistible groove like the one that drives “Them Changes.”
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