Book Review: An Ideal for Living

In 2021, Sal Maida edited (and did some fine writing for) a book called The White Label Promo Preservation Society. The book’s conceit was straightforward enough, and quite compelling: a critical look – in fact, more a collection of love letters – focusing on albums that didn’t get their due on release. The book was successful in its goals, and in short order it led to a second volume, published in 2023.

Now comes another title by a different writer/editor (but featuring some of the same writers as those books) from the same publisher, Chicago-based HoZac Books. An Ideal for Living is, as its subtitle makes plain, “A Celebration of the EP – Extended Play.”

The EP format falls between single and LP, and has seen its popularity as a medium come and go. Editor Corey du Browa makes a strong case for the format in his introduction, and in the pages that follow, he and his stable of writers (“and friends,” as it reads on the proverbial tin) implicitly reinforce that argument by exploring many, many, many EPs. (I for one had no idea there were so many ones of note).

Some titles you’ll recognize; many, though, you will not. And it’s that quality that connects An Ideal for Living to the pair of The White Label Preservation Society books. Read and learn, you will. The writing is uniformly knowledgeable ans passionate. Not every review will convince you that the EP being discussed is worthy of your further investigation, but you’ll surely find some heretofore unheard music worth a spin. And that is among the most notable of many virtues that make An Ideal for Living essential reading.

I could quibble with some omissions, and here I shall do just that. Marshall Crenshaw embarked upon release of a series of EPs about a decade ago, turning out no less than six between 2012 and 2015. All are excellent. And Squeeze’s 1979 release 6 Squeeze Songs Crammed Into One Ten-Inch Record would be worth acquiring for its die-cut sleeve alone; as it happens, the tunes are first-rate as well, a kind of mini best-of collection.

But hey, I suspect that most of my fellow music fiends could cite other worthy additions to the discussions within the pages of An Ideal for Living. And with such a creatively fertile concept at its core, perhaps we’ll soon see a second volume in a new series. If so, I hope Corey du Browa knows where to find me.