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

Expecting a Wire or Bowie to win but if Whitey On The Moon isnt top 10 I whitey riot.

there are some really great songs here. makes me picture an alternate universe where the 45 RPM single is 6 inches instead of 7 and the average pop song length winds up being around 1:50 or so. what a wonderful world....

Or LPs were the size and length of singles!

There was room on my ballot for the likes of both GBV and GB of F.

I think the Knight Rider theme is the only 77 second long track to place? Sad.

44. Pixies - Allison (1:17)
0.5625 points
8 votes

I think 1:59.9 with a recurring decimal mark over the last 9 is considered an equal amount of time as exactly 2:00.0 with a line over the zero. This emphasis was a good way to ensure that none of the recordings exceed 120 seconds, even by a small fraction of a second. Had the nominees accepted recordings labelled with a length of 2:00, the variance between 2:00.0 and 2:01.0 may not have been detected.

Was this discussed already? I am not a math person.

A song that hasn't been mentioned that I thought would do well is Final Day by Young Marble Giants. Really hope that's still to come.

wouldn't be surprised if it makes it

xp

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

my intent with the line over the last 9 (actually the last 9's, for no reason at all other than being drunk) was to represent 1:59.9999999999999 (infinite number of 9s), or the infinitesimal fraction of a second before 2. i haven't seen a number with zero with a line over it, but if i understand correction that would just mean 2.000000000, which is infinitesimally longer than 1:59.99999 (to infinity)

*world explodes*

https://i.imgur.com/QSGZ3Mk.jpg
18. Brian Eno - Another Green World (1:42)
0.7404 points
13 votes (1)

line over the .0 is the same as .0 so that checks out.

.9 with line over the 9 is the same as 1 tho? i think that's supposed to be a thing. again I am not a math person.

i thought this was my last cut, but i just checked and i think i threw it in at #49. beautiful piece of music at any rate

xp that is correct. a simple proof (using underscore to represent a recurring decimal):
0.3_ = 1/3
0.3_ * 3 = 0.9_
1/3 * 3 = 1
0.9_ = 1

therefore 1.59_ seconds = 2 minutes.

eno killed the thread

https://i.imgur.com/ouO90AS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VfX0CwN.jpg
17. Wire - 12XU (1:57)
0.7419 points
10 votes

ilxors be reminiscin' about takin' their sweethearts dancin', in a Pontiac

― imago, Friday, April 12, 2019 4:16 PM (forty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha! My no.1, and I'm not that old!
You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain...

Fingers crossed for a few older tunes to still make it: That's all right, Cleftones, Tim Hardin, Big Star, Janis?,

And surely talk talk is going to place?

A song that hasn't been mentioned that I thought would do well is Final Day by Young Marble Giants. Really hope that's still to come.

― kitchen person, Friday, April 12, 2019 4:38 PM

I'm pretty sure it will. It had better do.

https://i.imgur.com/5f483rX.jpg
16. Madvillain - Accordian (1:59)
0.8106 points
12 votes (1)

xp it damn well better, agreed

if Final Day isn't in there I will rain down nuclear armageddon myself

the poll that sold the world

0.05 is a relatively big points jump

https://i.imgur.com/KIqfGKL.jpg
15. Big Star - I'm In Love With A Girl (1:48)
0.8520 points
14 votes (1)

did not vote for Big Star (I don't think) but approve of this placement

Being a perfect song, Final Day is my hope for poll winner

MORPHA TOO is the best Big Star songlet dammit

so much weirder, and even prettier

glad "I'm in Love with a Girl" showed up!

Had to drop morpha too from my ballot at the last.

https://i.imgur.com/1sFjnEd.jpg
14. Bad Brains - Pay to Cum (original 7" version) (1:30)
0.8691 points
12 votes

still incredible after all these years

amazing picture btw, never see that one before

Accordian has some good lines but maybe none as good as that five key bass

Another Green World may have been the first music I thought I'd want played at my funeral (this thought dating back to when I knew it only as the theme from BBC's Arena).

Too low

I suspect "Accordian" is the only track I voted for to show up in the top 20.

Can't believe Pay to Cum isn't top-3, I just lost all my PMA.

amazing picture btw, never see that one before

i think it's from the Hard Art book about DC punk which came out a few years ago

Referring back to earlier in the list, I can now reveal that Delia was the only artist I voted for twice under the same name (I think I voted for Jun Togawa in three different guises). 'Ziwzih...' was my number one, but I couldn't not vote for the Dr Who theme.

https://i.imgur.com/ZlaAdB5.jpg
13. Vashti Bunyan - Diamond Day (1:47)
0.8751 points
13 votes

awww

Ziwzih is my favourite discovery of this poll. I need to listen to a lot more Delia.

https://i.imgur.com/os0V8KO.jpg
12. The Box Tops - The Letter (1:53)
0.8796 points
12 votes (1)

great song, totally forgot about. amazing that alex chilton sounded so much older at 16 than he ever did again

was thinking the same thing

Alright! The Letter was my #1. I was starting to get pretty worried it wouldn't place. Love the vocal, love the song, the stabbing horns that come in on the second verse, the way the chorus sounds like a bridge.

i voted for i'm in love with a girl in my top ten, was starting to get worried. the saddest/most longing big star songs hit me like very few other things in music