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In 2021, Sal Maida edited (and did some fine writing for) a book called The White Label Promo Preservation Society<\/i><\/a>. The book\u2019s conceit was straightforward enough, and quite compelling: a critical look \u2013 in fact, more a collection of love letters \u2013 focusing on albums that didn\u2019t get their due on release. The book was successful in its goals, and in short order it led to a second volume<\/a>, published in 2023.<\/p>\n 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<\/i> is, as its subtitle makes plain, \u201cA Celebration of the EP \u2013 Extended Play.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 (\u201cand friends,\u201d as it reads on the proverbial tin) implicitly reinforce that argument by exploring many, many, many<\/i> EPs. (I for one had no idea there were so many ones of note).<\/p>\n Some titles you\u2019ll recognize; many, though, you will not. And it\u2019s that quality that connects An Ideal for Living<\/i> to the pair of The White Label Preservation Society<\/i> 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\u2019ll 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<\/i> essential reading.<\/p>\n