<\/p>\n
Hate is a strong word.<\/p>\n
It was easy to draw up a list of songs that I used to love but now feel meh about.<\/p>\n
Equally easy to write down the songs that I used to love but now dislike.<\/p>\n
But hate?<\/p>\n
It’s a short list. Or a shortlist?<\/p>\n
Cast your mind back to the happy, heady days of the 1990s.<\/p>\n
This was the decade that gave us\u00a0Smells Like Teen Spirit,\u00a0Wonderwall,\u00a0Don’t Look Back In Anger,\u00a0I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing, Sit Down, Common People, Bittersweet Symphony, and November\u00a0Rain.<\/p>\n
Yeah, and\u00a0Everything I Do, I Do It For You, but we’ll gloss over that one.<\/p>\n
At the time I quite liked Ash.<\/p>\n
They were a non-annoying band from Northern Ireland who were quickly (but inaccurately) labelled as ‘Britpop’.<\/p>\n
Because Northern Ireland isn’t actually part of ‘Brit’, obv.<\/p>\n
Anyway, back to Ash.<\/p>\n
They were three young lads from NornIre who seemed reasonably talented.<\/p>\n
In the mid-90s Ash gave us Girl From Mars.<\/p>\n
It was OK.<\/p>\n
Not great, but not fantastic.<\/p>\n
Just OK.<\/p>\n
Fast forward a decade and there was a mercifully brief Ash revival.<\/p>\n
This corresponded with the time that BBCR2 ‘relaunched’ itself for a younger audience.<\/p>\n
Radio 2s mind-challengingly stunted strategy was to play a lot of Ash.<\/p>\n
And with every play that caught my ears, my ‘meh’ because ‘dislike’, my ‘dislike’ became ‘loathing’ and, finally, my ‘loathing’ became ‘abject hate’.<\/p>\n
And that’s where Girl From Mars still sits.<\/p>\n
Neck-deep in a vat of hate.<\/p>\n
Head down.<\/p>\n
May the insipid tune and twee over-emphasised lyrics rot in hell.<\/p>\n
Now that’s hate!<\/p>\n
BTW, if you need any further reason to hate this song, check out the video.<\/p>\n