Kevin Bronson on December 23rd, 2017

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EPs are notoriously hard beasts to appraise. They vary wildly in length, ranging from mere value-added singles to serious, though not album-length, artistic statements. As in Popular With Us 2017: Our Favorite EPs of the Year, many have merits worth shouting about. So here’s one more year-end list, and along with it a Spotify playlist of highlights from many of those releases (if an artist had a song on our 101-tune list, we chose a different one for this compilation).

Also see:

||| Buzz Bands LA’s Favorite Albums of the Year
||| Buzz Bands LA’s Favorite 101 Songs of the Year
||| Buzz Bands LA’s Favorite Videos of the Year
||| Buzz Bands LA’s Year in Photos

||| Stream: Picks From Our Favorite EPs of 2017

Our favorite EPs of the year (alphabetically)

Alyeska, “Crush” — Seven songs deep, indie-rocker’s indie-rock.
||| Stream on Spotify

Billie Eilish, “Don’t Smile at Me” — Teenage electro wunderkind.
||| Stream on Spotify

Brainstory, “Brainstory” — Psych-prog-jazz shredders.
||| Stream on Spotify

Buyepongo, “Tumbalo” — Party-starting polyrhythms, Latin American style.
||| Stream on Spotify

Cody Crump, “Hola” — In and out of love in five weirdly wonderful pop songs.
||| Stream on Spotify

El Ten Eleven, “Unusable Love” — Instrumental geniuses try music with words, win.
||| Stream on Spotify

Former Faces, “Swimming in Circles” — Soundtrack to a vivid, beautiful dream.
||| Stream on Spotify

Geneva White, “Surface” — Dynamic, soulful pop writ large.
||| Stream on Spotify

Goon, “Happy Omen” — Dialing back the noise, revealing a pretty psych-pop thing.
||| Stream on Spotify

HAWAI, “Hide in the Ocean” — Indie-pop hardly gets more infectious than this.
||| Stream on Spotify

Holy Wars, “Mother Father” — Heavy rock for heavy life changes.
||| Stream on Spotify

Joey Dosik, “Game Winner” — Buttery R&B, like the songwriter’s jump shot.
||| Stream on Spotify

Kamasi Washington, “Harmony of Difference” — A short glimpse of the saxophonist’s grand vision.
||| Stream on Spotify

La Bouquet, “Heavy Sunshine” — Visceral alt-rock, for lonely nights in suburbia.
||| Stream on Spotify

Lone Kodiak, “Feet in the Water” — Wide-screen indie-rock, epic and moving.
||| Stream on Spotify

Lukas Frank, “Storefront Church” — Sculpted art-rock from a nearby stratosphere.
||| Stream on Spotify

Malia, “Late Bloomer” — Smart, sweet soul from the Internet’s circle of artists.
||| Stream on Spotify

Miya Folick, “Give It to Me” — Emotionally gripping alt-rock
||| Stream on Spotify

Saro, “Boy Afraid” — Experimental electronic R&B, emphasis on the blues.
||| Stream on Spotify

Superet, “Superet” — In-your-face agit-rock that fits neatly in no genre whatsover.
||| Stream on Spotify

Special Mentions

ADLT VDEO, “Chameleon” • Stream on Spotify
Coastal Clouds, “Nothing to Hide” •  Stream on Spotify
Derde Verde, “Meander Belt” • Stream on Spotify
Dream Vacation, “Dream Vacation” • Stream on Spotify
Hunny, “Windows I” • Stream on Spotify
Incan Abraham, “Arabian Cane” • Stream on Spotify
Jennie Vee, “Suffer” • Stream on Spotify
Line & Circle, “Vicious Folly” • Stream on Spotify
Luna Shadows, “Youth” • Stream on Spotify
MAP, “Hello Singularity: Writer’s Block, Part 1” • Stream on Spotify
NONA, “Otherways” • Stream on Spotify
Raener, “Have You Been Here Before?” • Stream on Spotify
Rodes Rollins, “Young Adult” • Stream on Spotify
Royaljag, “Chameleon” • Stream on Spotify
The Marías, “Superclean Vol. I” • Stream on Spotify
Wolf Woodcock, “Cove” • Stream on Spotify
Yume, “A Violet Light & a Hum” • Stream on Spotify