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Released after a couple of singles, but before the first album proper, they served as the introduction to these bands for the majority of fans. I remember getting hold of a copy of 'Swim', and being absolutely flabbergasted that a band from Wales made that. A few years later, when I got hold of 'Captain', I was in love. It was, and remains to this day, one of my favourite recordings. The reason, for me, that the mini-album worked was that there was enough there to get me hooked, without giving away too much too soon, losing the mystery of what was coming next.
But what happened to the mini-album? None of the British rock bands with any level of mainstream popularity today have them in their back catalogue. From those at the heavier end of the spectrum, your Enter Shikari's or your Biffy Clyro's to the bands at the other end, The Vaccines or Los Campesinos, nor anywhere in between. Of those four bands, the closest we get is Los Campesinos' 'Sticking Fingers Into Sockets'. It was 6 tracks, but 4 of the six tracks on it had previously been released on their two early 7" singles. The remainder were a cover, and a 35 second long track. It's referred to by the band as an EP.
So could it be that the mini-album still exists, but it's all a matter of whats in the name? 'One Day At A Time' was an 8 track record, but four of the tracks were available elsewhere. It would have been five if there hadn't been a disagreement over the rights for the track "The Girl With The Brains In Her Feet", meaning its pulling from the record at the last minute. Like the Los Campesinos record, a lot of the material on it wasn't new, and it was a mixture of A and B-sides that made up the existing stuff. The difference lies in the fact material was missed off. Like a debut album proper, the singles were there, but B-sides were missing. That, to me, means the record was sequenced like an album, tracks that fitted the running order carefully chosen, and that's what made it a mini-album. The Los Campesinos release was more of a mini greatest hits so far- everything was there, on CD for the first time, with a couple of sweeteners for those that already had the 7" records.
Then there's the number of tracks. Where do we draw a line. Downwards seems fairly easy. Three or four tracks is a single? Six is where we stray into mini-album territory. Where does that leave 5 tracks? Five alone can't be the famous EP. As much as we deride Wikipedia, there is a very interesting point on the article about the Extended Play. It says the EP is composed of tracks of equal importance, whereas a single has a lead track and B-sides. That's why Oasis' seminal series of singles released around the time of Definitely Maybe weren't EPs. There were clearly defined A-Sides and B-Sides, as much as those B's were often easily the equals of the more famed tracks. The same argument can't be made when the number of tracks creeps upwards though.
There's two records released around a decade ago that really bring into question the number of tracks on a mini-album. In 2005, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly released his self titled debut EP. No lead track, but five tracks of sheer quality. A year before, My Awesome Compilation released 'The View Is Amazing'. Similarly wonderful, again no lead number, but six tracks. Both releases have always been referred to as EP's. The first I think, 'what a great EP', the second I wonder why it isn't called a mini-album. There really is that much of a psychological divide based on the number of tracks, having several years earlier been treated to the amazing mini-albums of the late 90's.
When it comes down to it, it all comes down to how a release is marketed. Sam Isaac's 'Sticker, Star and Tape' is a nine track record, marketed by Alcopop! Records as a mini-album. Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip's 2014 album 'Repent, Replenish, Repeat' is also nine tracks, but undoubtedly their latest full length album, not a mini-album. But because Alcopop! called it a mini-album on his Bandcamp page, it's a mini-album. Because 'Repent, Replenish, Repeat' is not called that, it is not. Simple. Everywhere we turn today we are subject to advertising, and the record industry is obviously no exception even when it what we refer to a record as even after we've made the decision to buy it.
Tim Dellow of Transgressive Records is of the opinion that "in a media industry now entirely focused on results both critically and commercially of your debut album, (the EP or mini-album is) a chance to explore an artists sound and develop in public with an audience." But is that necessarily a good thing? Of the six bands mentioned at the beginning of this article, only three went on to release more than one album. Sam Isaac retired from music entirely after his first album proper (save for an all-too-brief comeback last summer). Contemporaries of those bands such as 'A' and Hundred Reasons never released mini-albums and went on to release four full lengths each. Perhaps the classic mini-albums we were treated to forced those bands into the 'difficult' second album too quickly. All their best early work was pushed into that smaller release, leaving the debut album proper lacking. Feeder combated that by taking two tracks from Swim, placing them on 'Polythene' as well. Idlewild, by the time of their biggest commercial successes were nothing like the band who released 'Captain', an every evolutionary band. Seafood, the third of the trio who went on to release several records after 'Messenger In The Camp' never had chart success, seemingly content with their reputation as a solid, hard-working touring band, always respected never commercially massive.
But Symposium released the 'On The Outside' record, then imploded. Cecil released the sub-par 'Subtitles', not a patch on the outstanding 'Bombar Diddlah', briefly reimagined themselves as Voy, then were never heard of again. Transgressive has tried a slightly different tactic. Both Foals and Pulled Apart By Horses released live mini-albums before the debut proper. In my opinion, a great compromise. Fans get access to tracks they've heard before, and new tracks, in an album setting, but the band does not have the pressure of deciding whether to then include those tracks elsewhere. Foals are going from strength to strength, headlining Latitude 2013, and recently headlining the Royal Albert Hall, Pulled Apart By Horses are one of the most consistent and exciting rock bands to come out of Britain in the last decade. It's worked for them.
When I started contemplating writing this, I desperately wanted the mini-album to come back. It held everything I loved in music within it's 6-8 perfect tracks. I wish more records were mini-albums. I played a game with myself, and edited some records I like but not love down to 6-8 tracks. They needed some re-sequencing, but the quality of the record was massively increased. Anyway mini-albums still do exist, just to a much smaller degree. Labels like Alcopop! put them out all the time, LightGuides' Samba Samba Samba from a couple of years ago a particularly fine example, but Jack who runs the label is very much a child of the same time as me. It's obvious he holds the same romance for the format as I do.
If they ever did make a comback on a wider scale, I'm sad to say that the romance would be gone. I don't listen to music in the same way that I did. I rarely get the chance to sit down and actually listen to a record, and take it in start to finish these days unless I'm reviewing it, regardless of format. Coupled with the onset of downloads and fact that an album is often nothing more than a collection of ten or twelves singles which, if I really wanted I could pick or choose my own favourite 6 or 8 from anyway, I think 2014 is the year I finally give up on them and stop hoping for a mass return to the format.
It's time to say farewell the mini-album. I'll always remember the little sticker on your sleeve proclaiming what you were. I don't blame you for making the first album difficult for some of my favourite bands. You'd have still been there anyway, amongst that full debut, but you'd have been bloated, filled out and ruined. You were perfect as you were, and I loved you for it, so I'm letting you go. Swim away little buddy, Swim away.
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