Top 120 Songs Under 120 Seconds (ILM Poll #95)

#4: Can - Pnoom (0:26)
0.2070 points
six votes

Patronizing because it was put in just to appease people with 2:00 long nominations... the results were going to be predictably not appeasing but it happened anyways. Sorry if that seems offensive

I do appreciate the list of songs here - just not as part of a side poll

not offensive, just wrong and weirdly hypercritical, again. i explained why i threw in that sub-poll above - there's a bunch of ambiguous space around the 2 minute mark, and i thought that if there was a 2:000001 version of "tomorrow never knows" or whatever that would controversially miss the cut, it would reveal itself in that sub-poll. instead, it got weird results. so i thought i'd rush past the results to get to a more interesting side-poll, but you have always have to deal with the people booing on the side as you go

#3: Wire - Field Day for the Sundays (0:28)
0.2550 points
seven votes

#2: Johnny Hawksworth - Thames Television ident theme, c.1968-90 (0:07)
0.2910 points
six votes

#1: Napalm Death - You Suffer (0:02)
0.3750 points
nine votes

be back tomorrow for more flawless countdown, #100-#81

Thames TV ident theme did...quite well out of our house

tbf so did You Suffer

nil flopsy carborundum, KM! you're doing a great job

I've been working on a playlist for something I've got coming up--my third playlist ever, I think--and I realize I goofed on Lesley Gore's "Look of Love." One Spotify track has it at 2:00, but two or three others have 1:59. It's 2:00 on my media player. My own fault for not checking. I should have gone to the mat for that one--if you're not going to do so for Lesley Gore, who then?

Wow, couldn’t have asked for a better 1 and 2 in this side-poll! The Thames ident makes me cry.

I actually feared I might be the sole vote for the Thames thingy as I don't recall it inspiring any discussion. You're alright, ILX!

And thanks again, KM!

KM can you add the under 30s and 1 vote tracks to the playlist plz?

I was unsure about that...I’d rather not interrupt the flow of the overall results list. Would it be weird to make it a separate Spotify list? I could put them at the top of the list, but it wouldn’t be an ideal way to kickoff a playlist. And they could go the end, but then it’ll gradually build up to these iconic songs and then switch to a brief weird coda

I think a separate playlist for the side polls makes more sense.

Yay for 'You Suffer'! I figured it would probably win the under 30s round but you never know with these things.

you might be asking, why 4 decimal places? why not just three?

you rush to judgment; you don't know what's going to happen in that 4th spot. it's been zero up until now, but it might not always be. it's a product of the binary world, maaan

― these are not all of the possible side effects (Karl Malone)

i know we seem hypercritical but i do think you're welcome to choose your own degree of precision for the results

just don't start p-hacking on us

3 of the under :30 results are not on Spotify

I would like to volunteer to make a playlist for the under :30 results and non-nominated songs

Aww so nice to see Jim Guthrie “A Thousand Songs” get a vote up there

That album begins excellently with a 0:07 long introduction:

https://jimguthrie.bandcamp.com/track/intro

Rush I can make no promises I’m refraining from p-hacking

I'll be honest that two/three of the tracks I voted for in < 30 I didn't even take the time to listen to (lord knows why), I voted for them because "Hey, I know who Can/Bikini Kill are!" kind of reasons.

Xp Flamboyant Goon

There are some great tracks on that album. One time I e-mailed Jim’s website asking if he had lyrics for the garbled “A Thousand Songs” (2:00) and Jim personally replied with the lyrics.

if it makes you feel better leee "pnoom" is a fine song

re: not listening - i heard last week there was some study and they found people's stress increased when the number of debts they had increased, even if the overall amount didn't. i think that's maybe similar to why listening to all those short songs was tougher than i thought it would be!

you suffer is a deserving under 30 winner, hopefully it does well in the main poll too

seems like you suffer is the only song ive ever seen pop up multiple times over the years when the topic of "really good really short songs" comes up. i could see it winning the whole thing which would be fun.

You're all in on some joke that goes right over my head.

when it sounded like we might crowdsource art itt, lxy drew her nominees. here are some of them. rad imo:
http://i64.tinypic.com/332m6ph.jpg

those were made in 2 minutes each?! that's crazy, they're so wonderful (regardless of how long they took to make obv)

sweet

Wow, couldn’t have asked for a better 1 and 2 in this side-poll! The Thames ident makes me cry.

Karl, are we getting full breakdown for the sub-30-seconds side poll? I want to make a list of most popular by length.

Really enjoying the rollout so far and great results in the <30sec side poll. 'You Suffer' a worthy winner but very glad to see 'Wrong Way Down a One Way Street' place. Can't decide whether I prefer the version with guitar or the original acapella.

I nommed Wrong Way Down A One Way Street but obv didn't get around to voting lol. Good to see it place, great work as ever KM.

it's impossible to not play "you suffer" at least 10 times in a row

but, uh, maybe it's best not to listen for 10 hours in a row

OK, it's Monday morning! fuck!

and that means, it's time to resume the countdown. and THAT means it's time to bust out the official countdown graphic

https://i.imgur.com/df2GK5h.jpg

just to hype up the following 20 songs for no particular reason, i want to throw out this preview:

there are a couple "gems" in this batch

TOO LOW ;)

https://www.oldesweetshop.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1800x/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/C/a/CandyBox-MidgetGems.jpg

(a tribute to our midget gems, and possibly... a prediction?)

just as a reminder, here is a link to the Spotify playlist for this countdown

flopsy if you have a link to the playlist for the side-polls, feel free to share them whenever

https://i.imgur.com/Cps4cIr.jpg
100. Fats Domino - Walking to New Orleans (1:58)
0.3342 points
4 votes

^^ this song is a gem (that's all i meant by 'gem', no hidden meaning!) and i didn't know it before!

Karl, are we getting full breakdown for the sub-30-seconds side poll? I want to make a list of most popular by length.

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

i will do this after the full roll-out is over. it probably doesn't matter, but i don't want to reveal the full results for the side-polls because it might ruin the anticipation for some people if they think one of their fave <30s songs is going to rank highly on the full list, and then it turns out they're the only one who voted for it. i want to prolong their anticipation, delay and maximize the disappointing realization

that's what ilm is all about

well, i thought it was good! moving on

https://i.imgur.com/kVFEVcV.jpg
99. Noname - Self (1:35)
0.3384 points
4 votes

I should have voted for Fats Domino. I know Bobby Charles' version better, one of those cases where someone writes a song for a more famous performer, and it's a hit, and then the writer records the song long after the famous version was pop, and then you get a collection of the writer's performances of their own songs, like with Carole King etc.

i love fats, but i don't think i'd ever heard his walking to new orleans, somehow. most of my fats favorites are between 2 and 3 minutes.

i'm at work and have intermittent meetings today, so i'll be posting in weird sporadic bursts. plan to get to #81 by 5 pm (central) though