Nite Songs Best Of 2020 - Top 10 EP's/mini-albums

 

So here we go - the first Nite Songs end of year summary. It's been a very weird year and I'm sure I'll deal with some of the oddness when I come round to doing the first part of our Albums of the Year list tomorrow - certainly I don't think any of us ever envisaged 2020 turning out the way it did.

One side effect of the changing nature of the music business and the circumstances brought on by the pandemic though is a massive increase in the number of bands putting out EP's and mini-albums this year. Extra time on people's hands? Quicker and more cost-effective than having to devote time to making a full album especially when you're stuck indoors and having to record it on your own equipment rather than using a professional studio? Dictated due to band members having to work remotely? Probably a bit of all the above. But either way, there's been some crackers come out which weren't quite long enough to be a full album and it seemed only right that we should do a list of the Top 10 from this year. Just to clarify - for Nite Songs purposes, an EP is 3-5tracks and a mini-album is 6-9 tracks and less than 25 minutes (there's a couple of 8-9 track efforts on the albums list but these are well over the half hour mark so class as full albums). Hope that makes sense. So without further ado - enjoy...

10. Chris Catalyst - “Happy EP” (Bandcamp)

Okay so I cheated slightly with this one as it's only two tracks. But it doesn't matter because this was a welcome reminder of Eureka Machines frontman Chris Catalyst's skill as both a songwriter and a lyricist with the title track of this being a poignant message about judging yourself by your own standards and not those of the people on your television screen married to a big skyscraping chorus that made you instantly cue it up for a second listen while the epic B-side Dreams was fine stuff as well. Hopefully a full album will be incoming from Chris either solo or with his band in 2021.

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9. Land Sharks - “Dancing In The Fire” (Bandcamp)

With a line-up featuring Embrace's rhythm section and Mikey from Mr Shiraz on vocals, Land Sharks were certainly one of the more unlikely sounding supergroups in 2021 and Dancing In The Fire was every bit as brilliantly off the wall as it had the potential to be with tracks like Tip Not Serve sounding like some righteous collision between Andrew WK and Faith No More. Hopefully they'll return with some new offerings in the year ahead, maybe even a debut album?

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8. Ryan Hamilton - “Incommunicado”

Cooped up at his home in Texas during lockdown, Ryan Hamilton decided to put his time to good use in the run-up to his Nowhere To Go But Everywhere album with this four track acoustic EP with Springsteen style odes to small towns with dark secrets (Independence Day) rubbing shoulders with odes to packing up and hitting the road (Heads Carolina Tails California) and sweet Tom Petty style odes to love (Two Sparrows In A Hurricane). Gentle and affecting, this was music to soothe you after a stressful day.

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7. Reaction - “The La Chunky Sessions”

Reaction first came to our attention with 2018's under-rated Keep It Weird, Keep It Wired album and this new EP shows that their form's in no danger of tailing off with the Hip Priests style scumminess of Stay Pretty, the Ramones style bubblegum-punk of Kamikaze Baby and the Skids style off the wall approach of Illuminate combining well to create something varied which packs a serious punch. On this evidence, album number two should be well worth the wait.

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6. Saint Agnes - “The Family Strange” (Bandcamp)

Following on from 2019's excellent Welcome To Silvertown album, Saint Agnes put out a brace of EP's in 2020, one covers (The Quarantine Diaries) and this collection of originals. Veering from twisted funk rock (Brother, Daughter of Lucifer) to sinister goth (The Meanest Little Kid In Town), this was just as hair-raisingly unsettling as always and all the better for it. Bring on that second album.

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5. Snuff - “The Wrath Of Thoth” (Bandcamp)

Sometimes the key to a great record is to make it simple and following on from 2019's excellent There's A Lot Of It About album, Snuff followed up commendably quickly with the brilliantly energetic Wrath of Thoth mini album. Veering from the grebo-influenced Drink From The Chalice of Lunacy through the full-on thrash of Conductor 71 to the brilliant shoutalong King of the Wild (a live favourite in the making if ever there was one), this was 20 minutes of all killer no filler Snuff just the way we like it.

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4. The Damned - “The Rockfield Files EP”

It had been looking a bit precarious for the Damned after 2018's disappointing Evil Spirits so it was a welcome surprise when The Rockfield Files proved to be a much-welcomed return to form with a punk-psychedelic vibe reminiscent of The Black Album or Strawberries with the dreamy Keep 'Em Alive, the singalong Manipulator and the Nuggets influenced Spider & The Fly representing three most welcome additions to the group's back catalogue. Although the group will be off on the revival circuit with the original line-up for the next year, hopefully this line-up will have some more new material left in them once the coffers have been re-filled.

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3. CJ Wildheart - “Siege” (Bandcamp)

It took until December for us to get some new music from the Wildhearts but CJ's ferocious Siege album was well and truly worth the wait. Heavier even than the vitriolic Blood, its 2017 predecessor, the likes of Peking Duck, State Of Us and the truly furious Shit Brick seeing the guy properly venting against the hell-in-a-handcart feel of Britain in 2020. Great stuff.

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2. Dead Sheeran - “Dead Sheeran” (Bandcamp)

"Yeah, really looking forward to your podcast later mate! Like I haven't got anything better to do than listen to you talk about yourself for 20 minutes you c**t!" Well, as far as opening lyrics to a release go in 2020, I'm not sure anything topped that. Seething with vitriolic anger against lockdown Tory Britain but realising that sometimes when things look as utterly hopeless as they currently do, sometimes gallows humour is the only real way to deal with it. Like a much better Sleaford Mods with a social conscience, songs like It's Mental These Days and the brilliantly titled Wanking With Tears In My Eyes were sheer howls of boredom and frustration but with enough cleverness to elicit a chuckle at the sheer hopelessness of it all. Quite simply, the breakout phenomenon of 2020 - if you've not heard his stuff yet you really should put that right asap.

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1. Bob Vylan - “We Live Here” (Bandcamp)

It kind of had to be really, didn't it? While Dead Sheeran coated his anger in gallows humour to brilliant effect, South London duo Bob Vylan simply let all their fury and frustration blast to devastating effect and came up with probably the heaviest and most punk collection of songs in 2020. Ostracised by the music industry to the extent that this EP remains only available via the group's Bandcamp site, the songs on We Live Here skewered racists (the title track), politicians (Lynch Your Leaders) and the police (Pulled Pork) with a nail-on-the-head precision and fury that few have come close to matching in recent years. As the situation in the UK seems to grow more hopeless day by day, this was a true incitement to pick up the pitchforks and torches and start the revolution. Essential listening.