(Sub Pop)
Feels drab to me, whether it's an "expansion" of this band's sound or not -- it consists of leftover tracks that were too slow and draggy for the album, with the result that the EP itself is, yes, slow and draggy. It opens up with a slightly industrial grinder called "Mine Tonight" which is a not uncomfortable shift away from one sort of traditionalism to another; in slow-dance mode, in "eulogy" mode even, it works.
But cast it and the rest of this passable entertainment in the shadow of the shimmery surf-soul of "I Got Nothing" and, well, you... eh, too easy. It's not even that "I Got Nothing" is a particularly grand song overall, as much its tuneful radio-ready chorus frankly soars to Shadow Morton levels, but it's such an impassioned and danceable creation that it does few favors to End of Daze overall, which comes out as a kind of quickened dirge that might have been more immersively dreary without it... yet also far less memorable.
All of the above is with the caveat that the EP bears the mark of an eager eclecticism, and hence will work well for those tuned into its aesthetic. Don't let the numb ones among us spoil it for you, maybe?
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