— Red Starr
I've written about several EP's in this space and they'll be a few more before long but this time I thought I'd do a little piece about how they're put together, according to someone who has no idea about how to do so. Here are my do's and don't's for compiling the perfect extended play with additional notes on how Liverpool's Pink Industry measures up with their first too-long-for-a-single, too-short-for-an-album release Forty Five.
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DO try to spread out the highlights. You know when there's a killer A side and you flip the bastard over only to discover that the B side sucks something awful? Well, you risk doubling the folly if you place the choice cuts back-to-back in a clever attempt to hook listeners. But just wait till they put on the second side and realise that there's nothing of note spread over two tracks.
✓ Forty Five begins with "Is This the End", the record's bleakest track. Ian Cranna Red Starr's fave is "Don't Let Go" over on the flip side.
DON'T make it a glorified single. This is what I will call the Crackers International problem. Erasure's bid for the 1988 Christmas Number One was a value-for-money four cut EP which excited enough people to give them their biggest hit to date. Yet, opener "Stop!" hogged all the airplay and it's doubtful anyone played the other three tracks more than the once. A genuinely strong set of tracks would've covered up "Stop!" being so damn repetitive. Ideally, every selection on your EP ought to be good enough to become the single
✓ No danger of this happening here, even though ver Pinks did eventually issue "Don't Let Go" as a single in its own right. But it was five years later so we'll let that one slide.
DO pad out your EP with an instrumental that you have lying around if you're struggling with . Three track EP's are a certainly a thing (there are even EP's with two tracks for some reason) but they're best avoided. Four's your optimal number. Even if you've got little more than a dismal two minute jam session, use it. Placed strategically at the end of side A it might even raise the odd eyebrow or bring a degree of delight to your hardcore fanbase who will doubtless feel convinced that this is the "real" you.
✓ Side A's closer is "47" (stylized as "~47~" though I'm not convinced the tildas are there for anything more than cosmetic purposes) which is your classic post punk tune with no lyrics because no one in the band could be arsed. Right they are too. On your standard single instrumentals smack of laziness (see the otherwise fine "Oscillate Wildly" by The Smiths); on an EP they provide depth — even if they do know such thing.
DON'T resort to including a remix, re-recording or live version of an old hit to bring your EP up to the optimum number of cuts. In this instance you're better off with fewer tracks. (NB: this rule does not apply to EP's that are geared specifically towards recycling material, such as Teenage Fanclub's Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It)
✓ (It's almost as if this study has been designed simply to make Pink Industry seem like geniuses)
DO try your best to get the running order as spot on as possible. Deacon Blue's Ricky Ross described placing the key opening and closing tracks on each side an album as the "four corners"; with an EP, you're looking at nothing but that dynamic. If you were decorating your living room, you could get away with leaving one or two corners empty; but what if it's all corners we're talking about? Think about it.
X I dig Forty Five (it's second only to the mighty Spiral Scratch in terms of EP's covered so far on this blog) but the running order is as baffling as Rubber Soul (seriously, how does "What Goes On" merit a more prominent placement than "In My Life"?). Kicking it off with "Is This the End" must've seemed dead clever (dead clever) but it belongs at the end. I mean, for god's sake, look at the title of the freakin' song!
DON'T cheat by putting out a standard two song 7" single and an "EP" with a pair of extra cuts for the 12". This is a sure-fire way of ensuring that you'll have yourself a Crackers International of your own. Make up your mind, buddy!
✓ Again, no danger of this occurring, even though it easily could have with the beloved "Don't Let Go". It's possible that more than two dozen people would've gone out and bought it had the catchiest, most likable track appeared first. (On the other hand, as Brian Eno said, only twenty-five people bought the first Pink Industry EP but everyone who did formed bands and had their charismatic female singers shave their heads)
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To sum up, Pink Industry did very well with Forty-Five. It's an excellent EP. I don't know if it deserved a bigger audience but those of us who have been pulled into its orbit have very much appreciated the experience. To quote that chap Red Starr's closing remarks of his review, "more of this sort of thing please". Well, quite.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Talk Talk: "Mirror Man"
DO manage to somehow be both critically acclaimed and underrated. This is a square that isn't easily circled but (a) you don't have to worry about doing so yourself and (b) your fans will refused to acknowledge the contradiction.
✓ Nick Drake aside, no one has ever toed the line between strong reviews and the air of being ignored like Talk Talk. The fact that they hardly ever had hits seems reason enough to consider them underrated despite the fact that music critics have done nothing but praise them.
DON'T bear a passing resemblance to any popular comedians: no one will ever take you seriously.
X Actually, it's to the late Mark Hollis' credit that he managed to be a serious artiste despite being Eric Idle's doppelganger. Still, he'd have never gotten away with it had he looked like John Cleese.
DO try latch yourself on to a genre with fans that don't get so damn uppity about being a purist.
✓ Whereas folk, jazz and punk fans will revolt if you stray ever so slightly, synth-pop demands only that you employ a Casio keyboard, even if it's drowned out by guitars and horns and orchestras. Hollis had the freedom to roam in part because his band wasn't overly successful but also because he was involved in a genre that was more about what you stood for than the style of music you happened to play.
DON'T fret too much if the public aren't as receptive as the critics.
✓ Hollis went his own way, the punters be damned! And, hey, those royalty checks from that lame but successful No Doubt cover must've come in handy.
DO try to get yourself a Single of the Fortnight of your own so I can write about you in more detail.
X Well, at least that No Doubt cover might crop up...
(Click here to see my original review)
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