Mini Album or EP? - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

videoheadcleaner

formerly Harkan

Gender: Male

Age: 40

Since the intro of decade charts, I have thought about putting in some EPs into my list. Now normally, I am against EPs being in any chart but some of the ones I want to add could be considered mini-albums (I think).

So I want to determine what is an EP and what is a mini-album.

Examples:

Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong - runtime is 40 minutes and is sandwiched between Amnesiac and Kid A as the live album version of these. Considered a mini-album due to its length.

Matt Corby - Into The Flame - runtime is 18 minutes - contains four tracks and is the vehicle for a single. Considered as an EP due to runtime/single status.

Anyone have any thoughts on the EP/Mini-Album definition (that is going on in my head mainly)?

albummaster

Janitor

Gender: Male

Location: Spain

Site Admin

Originally, this site was meant just for albums (hence the name), but then some people started adding EPs to their charts, which personally, I didn't understand, since there is the entire history of modern music to pick from (so people shouldn't be short of legitimate choices).

From what I can gather, one reason for choosing EPs was to plug the 'gaps' in artist discographies because BEA does not show the entire output of each artist (again, I was comfortable with not showing a complete discography for an artist if the 'missing' albums weren't very good - the first part of BEA's name is 'Best' and the site exists to highlight the best music).

On Wikipedia, "an EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP." and "25 minutes of length or four tracks (not counting alternative versions of featured songs, if present".

Again from Wikipedia, an album is defined as an "album" if it has more than four tracks or lasts more than 30 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as "mini-albums" or EPs.

Accepting that the lines are sometimes blurred between longer EPs and shorter albums, BEA have been 'allowing' certain EPs if they are of sufficient length, with a mixture of tracks (and not different mixes/versions of the same track). However, I don't think BEA should allow anything shorter than a mini album because of the site concept.

I think your examples are good and illustrate the differences very well. The first could be on BEA, and the second couldn't.

videoheadcleaner

formerly Harkan

Gender: Male

Age: 40

albummaster wrote:

Originally, this site was meant just for albums (hence the name), but then some people started adding EPs to their charts, which personally, I didn't understand, since there is the entire history of modern music to pick from (so people shouldn't be short of legitimate choices).

From what I can gather, one reason for choosing EPs was to plug the 'gaps' in artist discographies because BEA does not show the entire output of each artist (again, I was comfortable with not showing a complete discography for an artist if the 'missing' albums weren't very good - the first part of BEA's name is 'Best' and the site exists to highlight the best music).

On Wikipedia, "an EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP." and "25 minutes of length or four tracks (not counting alternative versions of featured songs, if present".

Again from Wikipedia, an album is defined as an "album" if it has more than four tracks or lasts more than 30 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as "mini-albums" or EPs.

Accepting that the lines are sometimes blurred between longer EPs and shorter albums, BEA have been 'allowing' certain EPs if they are of sufficient length, with a mixture of tracks (and not different mixes/versions of the same track). However, I don't think BEA should allow anything shorter than a mini album because of the site concept.

I think your examples are good and illustrate the differences very well. The first could be on BEA, and the second couldn't.

Also read that in the UK, to qualify for the album chart, the entry must be more than 4 tracks and longer than 30 minutes.

BTW, Radiohead's I Might Be Wrong at 40 minutes is longer than The Strokes' Is This It at 33 minutes.

Do we determine an album on length/track listing or whatever the artists implies?

I know that not everyone will enter "short" or "mini" albums but just wanted to see peoples' opinions.

albummaster

Janitor

Gender: Male

Location: Spain

Site Admin

harkan wrote:

Do we determine an album on length/track listing or whatever the artists implies?

I think it should continue to be on a case by case basis as it isn't always so clear-cut.

From Wikipedia: "Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yes's Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. Other artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder refer to their own releases under 30 minutes as "albums" despite the normal distinction."

EDIT: Just quoting Wikipedia for convenience.

Charicature

Age: 50

Location: Vermont

One that might fit your definition of "gray area" would be Night Train by Keane, released early this year (I think, time flies maybe it was last year Laughing

). It's called an EP, but it has 8 tracks. Granted the first one is just noise and lasts less than a minute, but still, 7 songs. So would it count (not that I'm about to list it as a BEA).
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ShaneSpear

Thread Killah

Moderator

TV on the Radio's Young Liars clocks in at 5 tracks and 25 minutes.

It's also probably their finest work.

Sean

Age: 29

Location: New Jersey

I think the artist can call it whatever it wants as long as it fits certain restrictions
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