Despite being the accepted standard for radio play etc., sometimes there’s something unsatisfactory about the three-to-four minute pop song. It can, on occasion, feel like one idea has been dragged out a bit longer than it should have been, with superfluous guitar solos, incongruous bridges and unnecessary third verses, simply because it’s deemed that anything below this length is unacceptable. The best musicians, though, have the confidence and self awareness to keep things brief if they can say all they need to say in one or two minutes (or even less). Such tracks can easily be mistaken for throwaways, but really, the only thing more exciting than the hypnotic effect of an incredibly long song is the urgency and instant gratification of an incredibly short song. And to prove it, here’s an hour’s worth of great songs that fail to make it over the two minute mark, which may just leave you out of breath. Cathal McBride
