Oh ambassador, with these EPs you are really teasing us… JUST RELEASE THE DAMN ALBUM ALREADY!
I like EPs. I don’t release many, because the bands I work with seem to be more into the idea of albums at the moment, but I like EPs. They are leaner, less prone to that period at about song six or seven when you cease to pay attention and start doing something else, and it seems to be easier to keep them thematically quite close. In short, I suppose, small is beautiful.
The Scottish Enlightenment have apparently released the superlative Pascal EP and this new one (title track aside) largely by using off-cuts from their forthcoming debut album and I will repeat what I said on my Pascal review: if these are the off-cuts, then this album might just be a bit fucking special.
I had a conversation in a pub about this EP before I ever heard it – one which suggested that it wasn’t quite up to the standards of Pascal. I agree that by starting with Little Sleep and Get My Limousine it may not be as immediate, but they are both cracking songs once you get into them. And by the time the beautifully simple piano riff of Drip Feed pierces the low key guitar fuzz I must say I am ready to embrace this with at least as much enthusiasm as its predecessor.
The issue with EPs, I suppose, is that with so few tracks they can be a little unforgiving. When You Hate Me is a decent song, but it doesn’t grab me with the urgency of everything else around it. The Scottish Enlightenment take a bit of a risk in that they tread really quite familiar musical turf, so when they don’t quite crack a song it can quickly sound like so many things I’ve heard a thousand times before that I can find myself judging it a little harshly.
When an EP ends with something as lovely as St. Germain is Thick Tonight, however, all is quickly forgotten. I am trying not to look forward to this album too much, because I don’t want to develop impossible expectations. But I really am looking forward to it.
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An old tune from The Scottish Enlightenment
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abBXVvnRWiY
Photo Credit: RCSImages