5 out of 5

Label: Touch & Go

Producer: Steve Albini

Yeah, I guess I’m an easy sell on EPs.  Sometimes they’re definitely used as cast-offs of an album, but there’s generally that one gem that makes it as the lead off track or something that makes your eyes bug out.  Sometimes, as in ‘4’, the format allows a band to boil things down to their core sound, not having to be too concerned with sequencing or getting past the 30 minute mark.  That’s not to say their aren’t some excellent, amazing, every-moment-counts records out there, and also not to say there aren’t some shitty EPs, but I like the digestible aspect of the extended play, ’cause I can get it all on the train or something in one go, which is how all media presentations should ideally be experienced.  (OKAY, NOT ‘ALL’… JEEESUS)

Albini is just the right guy for this stuff, the rolling funky bass and snap-snap drums and creaky guitar shuttering right up next to Shellac-y style stuff, appealing to Steve’s love of the stripped-down take-it-as-it-comes sound.  But where Uzeda actually, to me, gets a leg up on Shellac is with lead singer Giovanna Cacciola, who brings an immediacy to her delivery that makes you wish you were in the room with her, watching her sweat into the mic.

Or something.