It Took Seconds

Four minutes and eight seconds: This wasn’t really the end of Madness’ career, but they thought it was at the time - exhausted after five years at the top, missing their best songwriter, staring obsolescence in the face. And what else could they do but be honest about it - “Yesterday’s Men” is, as its title suggests, a song about running out of road. By this point their robust ska-pop sound was long gone - since about 1982 they’d been making rich, classicist proto-Britpop, here with the help of Langer and Winstanley, who turn “Yesterday’s Men” into a welcoming armchair of a song without making it any less sad. This being a British mid-80s pop song you don’t have to take the self-referential reading - it could easily be about being on the wrong side of Thatcher’s revolution, or any other. The band were astonishingly young when they made this - and given that they had a (pretty good!) album out last year it seems prematurely aged, but there’s truth in it nonetheless.

What would your 4’08” track be?