Girls Aloud

You'd never have credited Girls Aloud lasting more than a year. Spawned from a reality show and seemingly fairly anodyne, they've been one of the great pop delights of recent years.  I give you a run down of their hits with the highs and lows and evidence for why I loathe Cheryl Cole.

They burst out of the starting gates with Sound Of The Underground which surprised everyone by being quite good. Still very listenable now in fact.

No Good Advice.  This also punches above its weight. Terrible video though.

Life Got Cold. A ballad predictably. There must be a rule that your third single has to be a ballad. It's ok, I liked it at the time but listening to it now, it's not memorable.

Jump. Ahhh, The Pointer Sisters classic. I have such a soft spot for this because it's just a great song whichever way you look at it. Put it this way, this is much better than Love Actually. In this video, I want to kill Cheryl with her stupid pouting at the camera.

The Show. We're warming up properly now. This is a great pop song. Fact.

Love Machine. This is my desert island Girls Aloud song. A perfect video and hilarious lyrics. I have no idea whether they all get on but they look like they are having so much fun in this video.

I'll Stand By You. I don't care if it was for charity. No. 

Wake Me Up. This is very blah, it's ok but unmemorable.

Long Hot Summer. I can only assume they had a large tax bill to pay.

Biology. Received wisdom is this is the best Girls Aloud song. And it's is a fab little pop song but I do prefer Love Machine as it is more fun and you can dance to it. However, this video is brilliant. More Cheryl loathing though - you know her hair is all extensions yet she gets paid to advertise L'Oreal. It incenses me!

See The Day. Inexplicable. Just no to the ballads girls. I am going to skip past Whole Lotta History as I don't even remember it and move to Something Kinda Oooh. I admit I love this. God, it's a terrible song but I just love it. It's so silly.

I Think We're Alone Now. These covers are getting offensive. As for Walk This Way. Gawd. Girls, I like you but you are not fit to cover the mighty Aerosmith.

The later songs are all unknown to me and I am thinking I've not missed any classics but I will finish with The Promise which is another great pop song with a really fun video.

It will always mystify me that Cheryl Cole has made it so big. The other four are all better than her, hands down. Prettier, more interesting and with better voices. Plus they don't beat up people in nightclubs. 

I kind of miss Girls Aloud, they were fun and what do we have now? The Saturdays? I weep for the future.