It Took Seconds

Three minutes and thirty-five seconds: “A hit. A miss. A cheat. A gift.” “Some Girls” by Rachel Stevens leaked the same week in 2004 as Girls Aloud’s “The Show”: a high tide of sorts for UK pop, or at least for my love of it. I played the two songs incessantly that Summer, letting them fight it out for my affections. After a bit I decided “Some Girls” won.

It had everything that seemed valuable at that excitable, brittle time. Singers who cherrypicked the best new tunes to sculpt a career out of brilliant moments. Producers with a belief in pop which was passionate, not just cynical. An electric sense of competition. A faith in the single as an event. A greedy, but not slavish, regard for the 1980s. And an icing layer of self-awareness - “Some Girls” is about a starlet in a relationship of convenience with her producer. If it’s about anything: it doesn’t have to be.

Seven years is the worst age for a pop record: not much sounds good at that distance, where you’re clear-sighted but not yet nostalgic. But this still does.

What would your 3’35” track be?