— Alex Kadis
Side 1: "Lady Madonna"; "Across the Universe"
Side 2: "The Inner Light"; "Hey Bulldog"
This is the track listing of what should have been the greatest EP of all time. The Beatles were getting ready for their meditation retreat in northern India but they were contractually obligated to release a single while they were away. George Harrison had already been in the subcontinent working on the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall and he produced a session with Indian musicians for his composition "The Inner Light". He took it back with him to London where he laid down his vocals at the encouragement of John Lennon and Paul McCartney who both liked the guitarist's latest work. As if spurred on by Harrison, his bandmates contributed some nice material as well. McCartney delivered "Lady Madonna" which would soon give the Fab Four yet another number one single while Lennon offered up both "Across the Universe" and "Hey Bulldog". Macca and Harrison's tracks would be used for their next single while Lennon's were held over for a charity album and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack respectively. None of the four are top flight songs but they're all very good and they would have become more than the sum of their parts had they been bundled together.
EPs exist in the grey area between singles and albums. If kept to three or four tracks (or even two in the case of Bjorn Again's Erasure-ish) they may qualify for the Top 40; if they go over their allotment, they become more like an album, especially if their running length goes past the twenty minute mark. (Even then, the lines aren't clear: I know of at least one R.E.M. fan who recognises Chronic Town, with just a quartet of tracks, to be an album; this blog will be looking at an extreme and oddball example next month) Effectively taking the place of the 10" record, EPs became a compromise between the brevity of the 7" single and the sheer length of the album. The Beatles dominated the EP charts every bit as much as they did the more renowned formats. Young people who couldn't afford to buy With The Beatles at least had the opportunity to invest in All My Loving which siphoned off four of its choice deep cuts. During their commercial peak they only issued one EP of original material and it was the mixed bag Long Tall Sally, which includes "Slow Down" and "Matchbox", probably the two worst covers they ever did. The EP chart died away towards the end of 1967 by which point The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour double EP was ready and was suddenly eligible for the singles chart (it got to no. 2 behind their own "Hello Goodbye").
Side 1: "Stop!"; "The Hardest Part"
Side 2: "Knocking on Your Door"; "She Won't Be Home"
EPs would eventually become a favourite format of punk groups and indie acts as a way of covering more ground than with a simple 7". Three or four tracks to choose from meant that there would be a better chance that someone's interest would be peaked by at least one of them and they were almost as cheap to make. The brilliant Spiral Scratch by Buzzcocks helped spur the revival of the EP and it wouldn't be long before rival punk and post-punk acts all over Britain were releasing their own.
A pop band signed to indie label Mute (where Vince Clark had remained since his days with both Depeche Mode and Yazoo), Erasure had a streak of the anti-commercial band about them and one who still retained a deep connection with their fans. 1988 had been a big year for them with a number one album The Innocents and three hit singles and they would soon win that year's Best Group award at the Brits. No one would've faulted them for choosing to release a fourth (especially considering Michael Jackson had just put out "Smooth Criminal", his seventh single from Bad — and he wasn't even done there!) but they admirably decided to try their luck with an EP of all new material. It's a wonder they didn't slap a giant 'OUR XMAS GIFT TO YOU!' sticker on the sleeve.
Unusually, Smash Hits had the lyrics for both "Stop!" and "Knocking on Your Door" printed in the same issue, as if thinking that both songs would be in competition with each other from both radio and TV. Didn't happen. My sister bought Crackers International (notably before we had anything to play it on, though it wouldn't be long before she acquired a record player from a friend) which would be my first chance to see a 7" record that looked like an LP. Each side had markings for the separate tracks! I only knew "Stop!" but there seemed to be so much more! While Crackers International was printed on the sleeve, effectively "Stop!" became the single and there didn't seem to be much point in the rest. (A similar scenario would unfold in the early part of 1989 when Simple Minds went to number one with their quasi-EP Ballad of the Streets though everyone knew it as "Belfast Child") While Erasure's loyal fanbase would have jumped for joy at an EP's worth of all new songs, the average listener only seemed to care about the one they kept hearing everywhere. (Pub jukeboxes, a recent obsession of mine, carried special editions that only featured "Stop" and what was its de facto b-side "Knocking on Your Door")
"Stop!" hogged the airplay and it subsequently appeared on various artist compliation and Erasure's handful of greatest hits compilations over the years. With a hard-hitting hi-NRG beat, Andy Bell's vocal histrionics and some nicely placed seasonal bells, it's easy to see why. Yet, listened to in the context of one of their best of's gives away that that it's repetitive and flimsy. The lyrics to "Ship of Fools" may have been nonsense but it remains a compelling song nonetheless. "A Little Respect" told the tale of being looked down upon in a relationship: well-trodden subject matter in song but one that Bell and Clark managed to keep fresh. But "Stop!" has a verse and a chorus and the two go back-and-forth from there — and their patented philosophical insights are nowhere to be found. It's just under three minutes long yet it somehow overstays its welcome.
It was only after a friend of my sister's let us have her portable record player for the remainder of our time in England that I got to hear "The Hardest Part", "Knocking on Your Door" and "She Won't Be Home". "Stop!" was all right but I didn't like it as much "A Little Respect" and I was hoping for some hidden treasures. "The Hardest Part" was my first exposure to one of those reflective Andy Bell numbers that take a lot of time to get used to: though I've since come round, I hated "Breath of Life" when I first heard it and I've never managed to warm to either "You Surround Me" or "Always" and it falls into this trajectory. (Bell frequently aspires to profundity but only sometimes pulls it off) I convinced myself that "Knocking on Your Door" was the true single but it lacks the immediacy of their classic singles so I guess there's a reason no one bothered with it. "She Won't Be Home" was a belated attempt to make it more of a Christmas project but I can't help but feel that there's a reason it's hiding away there on the second side's last track. Even so, the four tracks do hang rather well together in much the same way that the Lady Madonna EP does: it just isn't anywhere near as good.
Nevertheless, Crackers International felt like a monumental single that December. The Christmas Number One race was about to come down to Bros, Kylie & Jason and Cliff Richard and Erasure represented the alternative to all that yuletide schlock. Pet Shop Boys had already had their moment of stealing the Xmas thunder a year previously and now it was Bell and Clark's turn. They stood for all those quality records that were all destined to come up short: Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance", Inner City's "Good Life", New Order's "Fine Time". One of those may have been your favourite but why not get behind the one hope of a decent Christmas Number One that's not going to make the pop kids with good taste in music hurl? These aren't any of the best tracks Erasure has ever done but they're all new and there are four of them! Four! Sometimes quantity manages to trump quality.
Crackers International became a huge hit, falling just short of the top spot in the early part of 1989. The cover art and the last track that no one listened to aside, there wasn't much of a connection with Christmas so it continued to sell strongly past the New Year. Ultimately, it signaled where they'd be heading with their next album Wild!, a much more serious and somber collection of songs that what was on The Innocents (even though you'd think it would have been the other way around given their titles). Singles like "Drama" and "Blue Savannah" did well but the duo strove a bit too hard to create a masterpiece and ended up with something uncharacteristically boring instead. Luckily, their grasp of great pop would quickly return in 1991, which they would in turn follow-up with another EP which would be even more mediocre than Crackers but one that managed to be widely popular and strangely influential.
Side 1: "A Century of Fakers"; "Le pastie de la bourgeoisie"
Side 2: "Beautiful"; "Put the Book Back on the Shelf/Songs for Children"
Okay, 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light didn't have sides because it's from the heyday of the CD era (though I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it reissued on "vinyl" for Record Store Day or some other attempt at pathetically trying to prop up the music industry) but it follows along the same lines as Lady Madonna and Crackers International. Only (a) it's real and (b) it's truly outstanding. Groups like Belle & Sebastian gave a new life to the EP because they made the format a priority. They didn't cynically plop a single in disguise on their extended plays, nor did they time their releases strategically for Christmas. They selected tunes that were of the highest caliber, not leftovers from their most recent album. The tracks are diverse and wonderful. The Beatles never contemplated such a work and Erasure didn't have it in them so good on Belle & Sebastian for offering up the greatest EP of all time.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
U2: "Angel of Harlem"
Alex Kadis isn't terribly impressed with ver 2's second single from Rattle & Hum, feeling that they're trying to sound far too American. This is a valid complaint of their stuff in general from this time but I'm not sure "Angel of Harlem" is especially guilty of over-cultural appropriation. In fact, one of its chief virtues is how it doesn't understand Americana. Meant as a tribute to legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday with references to Charlie Parker ("Birdland"), Miles Davis and John Coltrane (none of whom ever worked with Lady Day), we are not greeted to the sound of U2 doing old school swing or improvisation; instead, they decided to recreate sixties' soul because...black people? Problematic? Possibly but Bono, The Hedge and the other two get away with it because they're not in over their heads trying to re-do Stax records. As with much of Rattle & Hum, this is a tribute that says much more about them than the legends they supposedly revere but if they're doing something as wonderful as this, who am I to complain? As many have remarked, it's the closest thing to a Christmas song they ever did and it's surprising it didn't do better.
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