The year 2007 is far from over in the world of music – the new Radiohead isn’t even out yet! – but for many ambitious music fans, the year is just getting started with the Pitchfork Music Festival starting this weekend (Union Park, Chicago).

Before you head off to endure the smoldering heat while getting to see harrowed indie-acts such as Grizzly Bear, Junior Boys and Voxtrot in person, why not prepare yourself for all the fun by looking back on the year in music so far?

And, even if you’re not going to the Pitchfork Music Festival, you’ll probably be keeping yourself up-to-date on YouTube anyway.

The trend I’m most fond of in 2007 is the quick-follow-up EP. EPs (which stands for “extended play”) from two of last year’s biggest indie-darlings were released in the early months of 2007, mere months after the release of their artists’ most recent albums. The trend continued with several stellar music acts in 2007, with EPs of additional material being released within months of the main albums in which they were connected.

These are the five you should be most concerned with, and three of them contain songs you’ll likely hear when you take the train to Chicago this weekend.

1. “Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band” – Joanna Newsom

In this EP follow-up to Newsom’s excellent and renowned 2006 release, “Ys,” two songs from this folk songstress’ back catalogue are played live while one original song is added to her list of instant classics, called “Colleen.” Each song is played by her excellent touring band, and not a single embellishment or twinkly piano note is lost from the studio arrangements of “Cosmia,” the stand-out track from “Ys.” Joanna has never sounded lovelier, and harp-led folk ballads about 1500s Europe have never been cooler.

2. “Elephant Gun” – Beirut

My favorite album from last year, Beirut’s “Gulag Orchestar,” is beautifully followed up in this quickly-released EP featuring a remake of “Scenic World” and four new tracks from 20-year-old extraordinaire Zach Condon. His indie-rock-meets-Eastern-European sound doesn’t fail to impress in this latest batch of songs, with Elephant Gun (and its saucy video) proving to be his most compelling work yet. Fans of Fergie need not apply – this stuff is rough, organic, and could have easily been released in 1839.

3. “Bro’s” – Panda Bear / “Person Pitch” – Panda Bear

“Person Pitch” is the third solo album from Animal Collective mainstay Noah Lennox, but it’s really a compilation of bits and pieces of his career since 2004. “Bro’s” collects the best of these songs, “Bros,” is a 12-minute masterpiece that could be the loveliest song recorded about beach life since the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds.” And speaking of Brian Wilson, he would be jealous – “Person Pitch” is all boyish vocal harmonizing, lush melodies, and animals as subject matter. When this album and its follow-up EP “Bro’s” appeared earlier this year, critics were hailing it as the stroke of musical genius to top in 2007.

4. “Fluorescent Grey EP” – Deerhunter

Atlanta’s Deerhunter followed up their stunning masterpiece “Cryptograms” in January with this EP, released three months later, which collects four outtakes from the best-album-of-the-year contender. “Like New” bests anything else from the sessions it sprung from, which also includes My Bloody Valentine-esque epics about death and childhood. I actually prefer the four-song EP to the full-length album it spawned from, because, like other EPs from artists, it skims the fat and leaves only the good stuff.

5. “Icons, Abstract Thee” – Of Montreal

On this EP, which follows Of Montreal’s 2007 masterpiece “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?” by mere months, four songs from the vinyl release of “Destroyer” are collected and one nine-minute epic is added. Written while the band’s lead singer went through a deep drug-induced depression, both “Destroyer” and “Icons” feature dark, searing songs that are not only more personal and touching than anything else this band has released, they are so moving that you’ll rethink your entire perspective on avant-garde rock.