A song that I used to love but now hate

Hate is a strong word.

It was easy to draw up a list of songs that I used to love but now feel meh about.

Equally easy to write down the songs that I used to love but now dislike.

But hate?

It’s a short list. Or a shortlist?

Cast your mind back to the happy, heady days of the 1990s.

This was the decade that gave us Smells Like Teen Spirit, Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger, I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing, Sit Down, Common People, Bittersweet Symphony, and November Rain.

Yeah, and Everything I Do, I Do It For You, but we’ll gloss over that one.

At the time I quite liked Ash.

They were a non-annoying band from Northern Ireland who were quickly (but inaccurately) labelled as ‘Britpop’.

Because Northern Ireland isn’t actually part of ‘Brit’, obv.

Anyway, back to Ash.

They were three young lads from NornIre who seemed reasonably talented.

In the mid-90s Ash gave us Girl From Mars.

It was OK.

Not great, but not fantastic.

Just OK.

Fast forward a decade and there was a mercifully brief Ash revival.

This corresponded with the time that BBCR2 ‘relaunched’ itself for a younger audience.

Radio 2s mind-challengingly stunted strategy was to play a lot of Ash.

And with every play that caught my ears, my ‘meh’ because ‘dislike’, my ‘dislike’ became ‘loathing’ and, finally, my ‘loathing’ became ‘abject hate’.

And that’s where Girl From Mars still sits.

Neck-deep in a vat of hate.

Head down.

May the insipid tune and twee over-emphasised lyrics rot in hell.

Now that’s hate!

BTW, if you need any further reason to hate this song, check out the video.