Music Monday: the COVID EPs
a handful of short plays that kept the music going during the height of the pandemic
As a medium for new music, the extended play or “EP” has been around for decades. Shorter than your traditional album (often an “LP” or limited play), EPs can be used to debut a new artist, to tide over audiences between bigger releases, to experiment with an artist’s sound through new tracks or remixes. And in the height of the pandemic many artists took their new reality as an opportunity for a breakout moment, or for a new spin on their discography. Below are some standouts and some of my favorite pop and rock EPs to come from those 2020-2021 doldrums.
Troye Sivan - In A Dream (August 2020)
If you like: Troye Sivan’s “Rush”, dissociating on the dancefloor, brooding over boys, accidental eye contact at the gym.
“I’m tired of the city / scream if you’re with me / If I’m gonna die / let’s die somewhere pretty”
Perennial sad pop boy Troye Sivan opens his fantastic In A Dream EP with the haunting “Take Yourself Home”: a tale of burning oneself out in their youth, being forced to rediscover what keeps you going, what keeps you afloat. Originally meant to be a lead single for his third full album and world tour, Sivan released the track early and announced the “In A Dream” EP in response to the quarantined summer of 2020. He had in fact taken himself home, moved back to Melbourne to wait out the worst of the pandemic and refine his musical lens. The song eventually opens into a full dance track full of broken vocals and wobbly bass - a ghostly portrayal of the lost dancefloors and queer spaces in COVID. Following is a tight 7-track EP that’s arguably Sivan’s strongest and most evocative songwriting to date.
Troye Sivan has a way of writing atmospheric pop music for and from a gay perspective, and by this point in his career he’s perfected it. There’s the glitzy track “Easy” in memory of a lost relationship, the angst-charged “Rager teenager!” a love letter to the lost days of adolescent recklessness. And then there’s “STUD” - a true jewel amongst a glittering discography. The distorted, autotuned ballad takes “do I want to be him or do I want him?” to the extreme as it builds over a groovy Jersey Club-style beat.
Check out the whole EP, but especially “Easy” and “STUD”.
Bree Runway - 2000AND4EVA (November 2020)
If you like: Flo Milli x 100 gecs, somewhat dated memes, frosted tips, modding your 2007 Guitar Hero 3 to play Missy Elliot’s “Work It”
“I’m already better than his next bitch”
British-Ghanaian rapper and popstar Bree Runway is no stranger to the brash. 2000AND4EVA arrived just ahead of the Y2K wave that’s dominated pop culture the past few years and set the bar sky high. The EP is equal parts a love letter to early 2000's pop - Runway name drops Kylie, Madonna, and Britney, and features Missy Elliot on the braggadocious “ATM” - and genre-pushing for modern pop. Bree Runway fuses throwback lyrics and bouncy, bratty pop-rap over a killer guitar riffs and blown-out production. And the piece de resistance is the duet “DAMN DANIEL” with Lil Baby Tate - where the two rappers take on bimbo personas to take down a two-timing man. Full of camp, cheek, hooks, one-liners, and 00s-does-80s synths, it’s a damn good time that will have you belting along while careening down the highway.
Check out “LITTLE NOKIA” and “DAMN DANIEL”.
K/DA - All Out (November 2020)
If you like: looking cute and destroying your enemies, workout playlists, a 1v9 breakout moment, Survivor Micronesia’s Black Widow Brigade.
A pseudo-girl group of League of Legends videogame characters has no right to make music this good. Following the success of the 2018 promo song “POP/STARS”, the creative team behind virtual group K/DA brought together singers and producers from Hollywood, KPOP, CPOP and beyond for a full EP of EDM-pop bangers.
By nature, the virtual foursome (which consists of four videogame characters from League of Legends - Ahri, Akali, Evelyn, and Kai’Sa) allows for an interesting musical premise. Because these are characters and not people, they can be voiced by any artist that fits the intended impact and style for each song. More than a dozen artists from across the world take turns teaming up on hit after hit including pop girls Kim Petras and Madison Beer and KPOP juggernauts TWICE and (G)-IDLE.
Lyrically, most of the songs are lightly videogame-themed with mostly canned messages of being the best, self-confidence, and feeling empowered. Production is crisp, clean, and mixed - best shown the moombahton, drum-and-bass, and trap influences on “DRUM GO DUM”. Madison Beer is a vocal standout with a dark pop, villainous persona. But the true star of the show is (G)-IDLE’s Soyeon, one of the best rappers to come from KPOP in a decade, who steals the show every time she picks up the mic in “THE BADDEST” and “MORE”.
Check out “MORE”, “DRUM GO DUM” and the 2018 promo song “POP/STARS”.
Johnny Football Hero - Complacency (July 2021)
If you like: American Football (band), American Football (sport), TURNSTILE (band), turnstiles (architectural element), yelling away the brain rot
Swinging out with a Midwest emo heart by way of the Philadelphia hardcore scene, “Complacency” is the second EP from trio Johnny Football Hero. And what a project. The band turns great headbangers one after another as they explore a guitar-laden soundscape of pandemic claustrophobia.
If you have any interest in checking out some small modern hardcore or emo acts, I’d definitely give this EP a listen. Float through the noodly guitars and crash-and-build on “Complacency Pt. 1” and “Cap’n Obvious (Deficit)”. The closest references I have for their sound are fellow Philly hardcore band TURNSTILE’s 2021 album GLOW ON and last year’s This Is Whyfrom Paramore.
Check out “41” and “Sister Hellen”.
Yves Tumor - The Asymptotical World (July 2021)
If you like: art, liking art, being cool and liking art, sonically falling into the abyss
Hot of the heels of their massively acclaimed album Heaven To A Tortured Mind, avant-garde rocker and provocateur Yves Tumor surprised the indie rock world with The Asymptotical World EP in July 2021. Sonically, it explores a lot of what makes Tumor’s work incredible - an ecclectic mix of heavy pedal work, distortion, and evocative, malaise-soaked vocals.
Take the opener “Jackie”, a blared out track that begs the listener to fully submerge themselves in the droning guitar work. Now put that next to the groovy and boppy “Secrecy is Incredibly Important to the Both of Them”, which sounds reminiscent of both 90s Le Tigre and revival 2020s The Strokes. And yet it all works so well.
Check out “Jackie”, and if you haven’t heard Heaven To A Tortured Mind, give it a listen.
Meet Me @ The Altar - Model Citizen (August 2021)
If you like: pretending you would have gone to Warped Tour, editing your MySpace top eight, if “Misery Business” actually had a positive message
The pop-punk trio of drummer Ada Juarez (left), vocalist Edith Victoria (center), and guitarist/bassist Téa Campbell is one to watch out for. Model Citizen, their first project after signing with label Fueled With Ramen in 2020 (see: Paramore, Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy and more) is a blast.
Listen - if you’re a pop-punk fan, this EP is immaculate. Each of Campbell, Juarez, and Victoria is a powerhouse in their own right, and together their chemistry makes this six-piece of uplifting bangers sound effortless. I mean it earnestly when I say this EP goes hard. It plays like the 20-minute opener for your favorite band, who knocks your jaw open and renders the rest of the show obsolete.
Check out the guitar hooks on “Never Gonna Change”, the cascading drums on “Now or Never” and “Wake Up”. While their 2023 full-length past // present // future felt a little underbaked to me, Model Citizen has kept Meet Me @ The Altar on my regular rotation for years now.
Check out the whole EP, and also their songs “Garden”, “Hit Like A Girl”, and Freaky Friday cover “Take Me Away”.