7 Songs Under Two Minutes You Need to Hear (a Tune Musings Special)
Tune Musings is a regular series where a lifelong audiophile shares, dissects and reviews lesser-known, beautiful music.
Got no time to waste in this hyper-accelerated world for meandering, mopey ballads? Having a difficult time wrapping your ears around any music that lasts longer than two and half minutes? If you prefer your tunage in bite-size morsels, here is a list of carefully curated short-running songs from my personal collection. They may clock in at less than 120 seconds, but each of these tracks packs long-lasting residual power.
“Candy Darling” — St. Vincent (2021) Total run time: 1:55
Annie Clark reinvents her musical persona on every LP, and the 2021 version of St Vincent won widespread critical and audience acclaim with her psychedelic lounge pop-infused Daddy’s Home. Tucked towards the album's end, “Candy Darling” is Vincent’s sultry, lovelorn ode to the Warholian superstar and transgender icon.
Despite its compact nature, “Candy Darling” is ambient pop poetry that reaches atmospheric heights. “I never wanna leave / your perfume candy scene” remains one of the most painful lyrics I’ve heard in the past ten years.
“Maybe Partying Will Help” — Minutemen (1984) Total run time: 1:57
This track from SoCal punk legends Minutemen is a tiny rocker fueled by Mike Watt’s patented ping-ponging bass pips, which carries the listener through singer-guitarist D. Boon’s guilt-ridden lamentations on a world of discord and inequity. Many of the songs from the classic Double Nickels on The Dime meet the criteria for this article. But I chose “Maybe Partying Will Help” for Boon’s underestimated six-string abilities; almost half the run time of the 1:57 track is all Boon’s guitar solo — a masterful piece of fretwork that doesn’t waste a single note. Boon’s sudden and premature death at age 27 remains one of punk’s most crushing tragedies.
“Get Yourself Together” — The Jam (1980) Total run time: 1:57
For anyone who always wondered if The Jam covered the Small Faces, this demo cut from the compilation Extras will satisfy that curiosity. And this recording was only natural; Paul Weller is not shy about his fandom for the Small Faces, and even a casual listener can hear Marriott and co’s influence all over legendary Jam LPs like Setting Sons and Sound Affects.
This worthy rendition lives up to the band’s namesake; Weller, Foxton, and Buckler are clearly having fun here jamming at breakneck speed through one of the Small Faces’ more popular singles. Buckle up for this ride.
“Weekend” — Eddie Cochran (1961) Total run time: 1:48
Eddie Cochran’s premature death in 1960 extinguished a unique musical voice. Through a short but brilliant career, Cochran successfully captured teenage frustration and desire in the late 50s/early 60s better than most of his peers. One can only imagine what Cochran could have accomplished had he lived past the age of 21.
“Weekend,” a fun little exaltation to Friday-Saturday-Sunday, was a posthumous release that somehow only reached # 15 on the UK charts and incredulously failed to even dent the US Top 40 in 1961.
“Self” — Noname (2018) Total run time: 1:34
Chicago-based independent poet-rapper Noname (aka Fatimah Nyeema Warner) packs a whole of concepts into the diminutive opener to her stellar 2018 LP Room 25. Atop a funky, harmonic backing sample, Noname manages to tackle identity crises, male tropes, systemic injustice, and feminist solidarity in ninety-four seconds. It’s a dizzying take on multiple, heavy subject matter that never relents until the literal hard stop at 1:34.
Spins of both Room 25 and her debit mixtape Telefone are highly recommended listening experiences. Noname remains a fresh, creatively individualistic voice in American hip hop.
“Jumping Fences” — The Olivia Tremor Control (1996) Total run time: 1:52
How often have you heard the phrase “they tried to do their own White Album,” the rock cliche wherein an artist attempts their own ill-conceived facsimile of the Beatles’ most ambitious project?
While most bands lack the compositional chops and/or inspiration to pull it off, Athens, GA collective The Olivia Tremor Control almost did. Their eclectic and surreal LP Dusk at Cubist Castle sounds like a Georgia O’Keefe painting came to life, picked up instruments, and tried to approximate the sounds of White Album while recording next to a busy rural highway.
And while some of it misses, most of Cubist Castle lands — particularly the very short and very Beatlesesque third track, “Jumping Fences,” which could have easily been penned and recorded by the Fab Four.
“Hippie Vomit Inhaler” — Surfbort (2017) Total run time: 1:22
I love everything about Surfbort. I love the high-energy Brooklyn quartet’s unwavering commitment to their scuzz-punk ideals. I love their old-school rebellious nature mixed with good-humored charms. I love lead singer/force of punk nature Dani Miller’s unique presence on and off the stage. And I love their songs, of course…many of which are short enough to make this list.
“Hippie Vomit Inhaler,” from their debut 2018 LP Friendship Music, sounds exactly like you might surmise a song called “Hippie Vomit Inhaler” would.
Forewarning: punk elitists and/or those with heart conditions might want to refrain from clicking the below link.
