Best of Month: Top 10 EPs of 2021

Last year I only made a top twenty EP list splicing in remix and demo EPs to fill the space because I found I just wasn’t into that many. This week just like with the singles we have a list of fifty at the bottom of this post to shout out. These ten especially, however caught my attention this year and if you haven’t heard any of them I hope I inspire you to look their way.

#10: Kero Kero Bonito - Civilisation II (Polyvinyl)

One thing that always impresses me about KKB is their progression from album to album and how they change genres while set on a clear concise path. If you tried to imagine the sound of Civilisation just by going off of Bonito Generation I think the only sensible line you’d see is the electronic undertones. Going from album to album all the way through, however is a different story. On this newly completed record whose first half is now two years old, the band takes the dance and electronic elements of their first record, combines them with the seriousness and indie undertones of Time ‘n’ Place to form a new version of themselves where they have clearly been reassessing things after the way the world has been these last couple of years.

Not to mention “Well Rested,” the seven minute grand closer is a tour through KKB’s entire catalogue. There are elements of every single release by them in this outro track and it is a great feel for how into them you’d truly be. In it Sarah Bonito is shouting prophecies into the void and promising that while the world looks like it’s ending, you’ve survived endings before and you will again.

#9: Cherie Amour - Internal Discussions (Equal Visions)

Cherie Amour is a much newer band, having only signed to Equal Vision in the past year and having only this very EP to their name so far. Something immediately special to me about this release is how they blend genres in a way that no one else really does. Some bands inspired by hip hop will usually produce a trap beat and place it as the intro to a pop punk song and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, Cherie Amour instead write a piece of music on a guitar or other standard instrument and make it instead replicate that production. That to me is just one bit of the inventive stuff found on these five tracks. The innovation aside all five of these songs get stuck in my head all day after listening and it’s something I can throw on for just about any mood.

#8: Wild Truth - Drift (Open Your Ears)

What if Fall Out Boy never went on hiatus and came back with a completely different sound?

I always am very careful about comparing bands unless it’s to help people find ones I think they would like based on what they’re already into but I think in the realm of Open Your Ears Records bands there’s a certain callback to an era of punk that’s being aimed for deliberately. As I said above, Wild Truth is adjacent to Fall Out Boy or any band in those circles from the time of Folie a Duex and back. On songs like “No Filter” it’s almost uncanny to Patrick Stump’s delivery itself.

Outside of that though, on Drift you can hear the sound of musicians having fun. There’s a certain charm to the way this EP is put together and though it’s a lightning round at under twenty minutes a lot of the ideas come across in a big way.

#7: Heart Attack Man - Thoughtz and Prayerz (Triple Crown)

Every once in awhile there is a band floating around that you know by name but never interact with their music at all. I’ve talked about this before, in my Jetty Bones review from earlier this year, and funnily enough Eric Egan’s vocal feature on the Jetty record was exactly what made me want to check his own band out in the first place. Hammy is one of those bands that a lot of people seem to think is a shit post account and not an actual musician. Even at that, with songs like “Notes App Apology” the band sort of blurs the line between the two.

On Thoughtz and Prayerz you will find a bit of that sense of humor but you’ll also find a heat of anger let out across four tracks to come back around to a closer that expresses a thankfulness to be alive despite it all. You’ll also find instrumentation with not much bells or whistles tied on, just good, fun songs that sound like there would be no difference between the studio version and the live experience. Heart Attack Man really won me over on this EP and I feel like I was unwise to have checked them out before.

#6: Hot Mulligan - I Won’t Reach Out to You (Wax Bodega)

“Featuring Mark Hoppus” was such a huge part of the year. First of all the beauty in advertising of naming your song to imply that the blink-182 frontman is featured is one thing, but the fan reaction is better than I think anyone could have hoped for. Fans scrambled all over social media trying to find Hoppus on this track, maybe he was a backing vocal we couldn’t hear, maybe he played bass? Keys? The truth of course, was that he wasn’t there at all, but this got so big that the man himself requested to be on the next record. All that and the song is just so good too, maybe my favorite by this band to date. It has a radio catchiness in the chorus but the spirit of a punk rock band. That and a message that I think anyone can relate to; those friends who you used to know but now that you’re both so fundamentally different people there’s no real way you could reach out ever again.

That’s just the one track! The other single was just as catchy and strong and the EP itself, while very short, contains multitudes in its presentation. A favorite moment of mine is the relation between the opening and closing songs here. Using the album intro as a short acoustic sing along moment and then later as a huge emotional drop in the album’s closing moments is the kind of callback that I always fall for. To be honest, at this point, there’s very little Hot Mulligan could do that I wouldn’t fall in love with but I really played the Hell out of there twelve minutes this year.

#5: Future Teens - Deliberately Alive (Take This to Heart)

If you go to Future Teens social media you will see them described as “a bummer pop band from Boston.” Once upon a time, on bandcamp, an explanation of what bummer pop is was offered to you though not in the traditional sense. Instead of giving you an artist comparison or talking about what the origins are, it would offer you a story poised as a TV commercial for medication or maybe a mortgage firm. Then it would tell you to imagine you’re at a party, run into a friend there and the two of you talk about a rough couple of months that you are both going through. Now, I recognize that this is a made up, or pioneered, (You decide?) genre by this band specifically, but that very energy is what this EP is. Since that story seems to be deleted, however, I offer you my own version. Picture you overhear this conversation. You listen in on two old friends unload onto each other a very rough patch they’re respectfully going through. You turn around and decide maybe you should get out of here. You go to the bedroom, that’s where your coat is, but you can hear someone is in there. It's a couple, or maybe what once was one, and they’re either breaking up or seeing each other for the first time since breaking up. You can’t just walk in there so you can’t leave. So you go get another drink, maybe keep listening to this juicy drama even though you know you shouldn’t, you sit and enjoy the Cher song that someone put on, maybe try to enjoy yourself a bit more. All that and I didn’t even talk about the music, which is very good and despite itself sonically very fun. If you’re looking to get really enthralled in bummer pop this is a perfect place to start. In sixteen minutes you can hear sad-post-life-happening songs that can pass as fun rock cuts and a pop cover you wouldn’t quite expect. (Though I guess I gave it away earlier.) This was a big part of my year and getting to imagine I’m in this awkward scenario got me through some of my own. Also it helps that this band is from a city local to me and can offer me a sense of hometown pride, even if it’s not where I am directly.

#4: Poppy - EAT (Sumerian) Poppy is an artist that has been non-stop since the start of her career, and especially in the past two years. The 2020s have seen her release two full-lengths, three EPs and a myriad of other tracks as well as videos that I’m amazed one artist can pump out all this material and have it all be of such quality. Last year I Disagree blew the metalcore community, and me, away. All of a sudden this YouTube pop star was as heavy as their favorite bands and while some saw it as a gimmick and laughed it off, others really embraced it. (It was funny to watch Gojira fans seethe about their tour together though.) I had that record in my top albums of 2020 at number seven, it’s one that really impressed me just came out very early in the year. EAT was under-promoted in a lot of ways. The title track was played at a Grammy performance then the EP came out, kind of sneakily coinciding with a WWE promotion. On Spotify you have to find it buried in Poppy’s single section but the collection of songs is so much more deserving than that. Poppy takes the sounds and themes of I Disagree and cranks them to eleven, now with a punk-metal sensibility to them and attacking our “dark, dark world” much more boldly. The tracks are heavier than ever too! Just last year while she embraced the heavy but swore on “no screamies” she is now screaming with an intensity better than most in the game at the moment and her cleans are her best performances to date. Poppy is an artist that means a lot to me and while her full-length Flux that came out after this didn’t hit quite as hard, this EP stuck with me when I needed some heavy music this year.

#3: Pollyanna - Sugar Coat deluxe edition (I Surrender)

So, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that one of these, this one, may not count. The thing is that the original version of Sugar Coat came out in 2020, in a time where I had no idea this band existed but I offer two caveats; It released right at the end of the year and the deluxe edition is only about a month or so old at this point. To me though it’s a bit more than your standard deluxe edition with some bonus tracks or acoustic versions thrown on. The two new songs that Pollyanna offer here offer a conclusion and even step up from the lyrical themes found on the base EP in a more stripped back fashion. “Monster” and “Friend” are so much more than bonus tracks. They’re a reflection of what Sugar Coat is and I believe closure to the moment in time the whole thing is about. Acoustic tracks? Pollyanna took to rewriting three of their songs into totally new genres on the back end of this EP. The five additional tracks could have been their own project altogether but as a package with the six original ones it makes so much sense as a presentation.

The base EP itself was huge to me this year. I listened to this constantly with its twists and turns of emotion and even genre. It's a band I’m a little sorry I missed out on all this time but I’m glad I’m here right now while such big things are happening.

#2: pulses. - Speak Less

Last year, Speak it into Existence made my number six album of the year. This year, pulses. delivered on a sequel that honestly, given almost a year to mull on both of them, I like so much more than its predecessor.

The thing is, while it is a tie-in, on its own it's so strong that the record before it is almost a bonus that if you wanted to explore you’d be richer for the experience. What got me about this EP after revisiting it to write this master post was that the only transition present is right at the beginning, tying “Graduation Day” to “Absence of Evidence.” Every single track be it a half a minute or three and a half minutes is it’s own idea that just starts and goes but there is a clear cohesion to the entire twelve tracks that makes it a complete experience when looked at as a whole, but if you break any peace off it sounds just as good. Not to mention the band’s style of sound crafted from taking sonic inspiration from anywhere and everywhere as well as lyrics and samples that reference so many things in such a tightly presented fashion that I’m still finding references all these months later.

Speaking of influences; pulses. is so forthcoming on social media about where the framework for each track on their whole discography lies. Influences on Speak Less range from Silverstein to DMX to John Williams and so much more. The other thing is you can tell that all four of these guys care so deeply about, not only music, but the community at large. They are all always talking about the connections they’ve made, the bands they’ve played with and the listeners who reach out and come to the shows. I’m waiting for pulses. to really blow up in a big way because they have the personality and the songs to back it up. Until then, Speak Less is the best music they’ve put out altogether and I’m excited to see what’s to come in season three.

#1: Beach Bunny - Blame Game (Mom+Pop)

Last year I gave Beach Bunny my number two album slot at year end and I just want to say on record, I was very wrong. I’m not going to spend a ton of time on that as we’re talking about the year at hand but in all honesty Honeymoon made more of an impact not just on me but in the grand scheme of things than Pink Elephant did and to be fair I still listen to Honeymoon regularly to the day. This EP was my first experience as a fan of this band absorbing new music coming out in real time and waiting months for the vinyl because of COVID delays. That and, not that I’m going to spill my personal life in a music discussion, but these past two years have had a lot of ups and downs for me in my life and these records, this band, their songwriter herself, have just been there for me in a way I haven’t truly allowed a musician to since I was very young. To put it in perspective, this entire EP was in my top five in my Spotify Wrapped.

I think what makes Blame Game so special is Lili Trifilio’s willingness to abandon her once sad and moody songwriting stylings and give way to anger and direct it in all different places. In under fourteen minutes she takes on exs, misogyny and society at large with, as I said, a fiery anger but also wit and humor in her own fun way. All of that and she comes at it in a way that isn’t so cut-and-dry like a lot of indie rock tends to be. In four tracks Beach Bunny hits indie, alternative, pop punk and even a bit of ska inspired post-choruses that makes the whole thing cohesive.

Between this, “Oxygen” and the second record to come, Beach Bunny has become an easy top five band for me and Lili Trifilio a top song writer overall. I cannot wait to be there along for the ride waiting to see what she throws at us next.

Aster Tracks Top 50 EPs of the Year