10 Songs You Must Hear (That Are Under Two Minutes)

By Jack Haworth /

1. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty €“ Billy Bragg

This highlight from Billy Bragg€™s first album (are all of these from debut albums?!) hones in on the concept of beauty using a biblical angle on glossy magazines, a seemingly omnipotent feature of modern British life that isn€™t a million miles away from the prefigured message of this list€™s previous choice. At just fifteen minutes long, Bragg€™s Life€™s a Riot with Spy Vs Spy€™s (1983) quirky and humorous little political vignettes are barely long enough to reach album status and this gem isn€™t even the shortest. However, Bragg€™s downbeat kitchen-sink poetry way with words is at its most effective here and the truth in some of his passing observations: €œThe simple girl buys / What she€™s told to buy€ are expertly balanced with the more weighty, introspective couplets like €œWhat will you do when you wake up one morning / To find that God€™s made you plain?€. His witticisms are spot-on and say a lot about the tendency for those with insecurities to rely on print and media for self-assurance, and though the understated performance is certainly best heard in conjunction with the rest of the album, it stands alone as an essential for a sub-two minute playlist. Length: 1:59