Girls Aloud: from Biology to Love Machine, we rank the girl band's 10 best tracks
If the rumours are to be believed, Girls Aloud could well be plotting a comeback, ten years after breaking up.
The British girl band, who formed on the reality talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 and immediately rocketed to fame with their Xenomania-penned debut single Sound of the Underground, are said to be planning some sort of return a decade later. According to a source who spoke to The Sun, they've already filmed a music video in secret which pays tribute to their late bandmate Sarah Harding, who died of breast cancer in 2021, aged 39.
The source also suggested that a new album could be on the way, along with a “massive” tour.
For now, nothing's set in stone - but in the meantime, Girls Aloud have more than enough pop bangers to soundtrack the wait for further news. From the pure-pop dance hits to out there experimentation, here's our ranking of the iconic group's ten best songs, in ascending order.
Sexy! No No No
Sexy! No No No has one of the best introductions in Girls Aloud’s entire back catalogue, which in turn, surely means it's one of the best pop intros of all time. Released shortly after Britney Spears’s 2007 Blackout album, and with the same spattering of auto-tune, it’s 30 seconds of spine-tingling drama. But then the song takes a swerve in another direction, as the track explodes with artificial rock chords and a repetitive, shout-singing chant of No No No. The electropunk song went to number five in the UK, which isn’t shoddy at all. EG
Something Kinda Ooooh
Cut from a similar cloth to Sexy! No No No, Something Kinda Ooooh is a good old earworm with a relentless, hard-going pop drive urging the action forward. “Something Kinda Ooooh” repeats and repeats like a pink blow up hammer being whacked around your head; thick phasey bass accompanies beats that keep coming at breakneck speed. The 2006 track went to number three in the UK charts, cementing Girls Aloud as one of Britain’s best-ever pop groups.EG
Love Machine
Love Machine takes listeners on a real journey: the first section of the track is like an updated Sixties Yé-yé number, as the girls take it in turns to rebuke a man who missed their call. Then the song slows down. It twinkles with synthetic astral sounds, but then, suddenly Love Machine sets off again: it's back to the swing number but it's more bouncy now, and a guitar strums in the background. Although the rhythm is zig-zagging everywhere, Love Machine never feels like it's too much – the stop-starts are part of its magic. EG
Can’t Speak French
Can’t Speak French is a textbook pop banger: there’s a long, meandering, easygoing intro, and though the chorus seems deceptively inoffensive at first glance, it gets hooked into your head for the rest of the day. Major apologies for the reminder, you will shortly be humming ‘Oh, I can’t speak French’ under your breath. In an incredibly fun moment of wit and self-awareness, Girls Aloud later released a French language cover of the song, Je Ne Parle Pas Français. EG
No Good Advice
There’s something so brilliantly bratty about No Good Advice, from its snarling yowls of guitar to some middle finger slinging one-liners (“I don't need no bedtime prayer, 'cause frankly I don't even care”). Following the runaway success of their debut Sound of the Underground, Girls Aloud waited five months before they released this as the follow-up. Xenomania’s Brian Higgins correctly deduced that "pop music was on its backside and indie music was about to rise” when he wrote it. Though it’s undeniably much, much poppier, No Good Advice also doesn’t feel miles away from Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and the other angular indie bands of the early Noughties. EH
Untouchable
Xenomania and Girls Aloud made for an eclectic combination, and Untouchable – a highlight and centerpiece of 2008’s Out of Control - borrows heavily from both Nineties trance, and sun-drenched Ibiza house. Running well over six minutes long, it’s by far the group’s longest – another nod to the land of dance edits – and best of all, the music video is inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. EH
Call the Shots
Every element of Call the Shots is perfect. After a moody beginning transports you straight to a sticky Tiger Tiger dancefloor, an intense chorus meets a lighter-touch beat, and surprisingly uncomplicated lyrics. Compared to much of Girls Aloud’s curveball collection, this is a straightforward pure-pop outlier, and you have to admit they nail the brief just as well. Don’t even get us started on the super Noughties music video, where the band members are standing on a beach, enigmatically surrounded by white flags and firepits, while gazing out of a window of a white mansion. It peaked at number three in the UK. EG
The Promise
An existential question for all Girls Aloud fans to ponder: when Sarah Harding sings “here I am, walking Primrose” what does she mean. Is Primrose…. a friendly golden retriever out for her daily stroll? Is she strutting through London’s Primrose Hill, where she once lived? Or is this some sort of brilliantly strange metaphor based on Shakespeare’s favourite flower. The truth almost doesn’t matter. Heavily inspired by Phil Spector’s pop production, The Promise hosts one of the late Sarah Harding’s greatest verses, and won the band their first ever Brit in 2009, seven years in. As Harding quipped so brilliantly while picking up the gong: “can I just say, it's about time”. Too right. We miss you, Sarah. EH
Sound of the Underground
Is there a stronger pop debut from the last decade than this? Girls Aloud’s first ever single might have first stemmed from the land of reality telly (the band were originally formed on Popstars: The Rivals) but has far more substance and grit than the usual selection of heavily manufactured warbling ballads that talent show winners tend to come out with. Clashing warped surf-pop guitars with big, beefy drum and bass beats, it set the tone for everything that would follow from the group: pure-pop, but with a left-field twist. EH
Biology
Xenomania - the eccentric songwriting force behind majority of Girls Aloud’s hits - famously love a pop curveball, and Biology is the experimental crowning gem of their entire back catalogue. Eschewing all conventional wisdom when it comes to songwriting structure, this doesn’t mess about with verses; instead, it ploughs straight into an onslaught of three entirely different, massive choruses, samples the Animals’ 1965 hit Club a Go-Go, switches time signature and tempo, features two completely unique bridges, and gives a subtle lyrical nod to Chris Isaak's Wicked Game (which the band very nearly ended up covering). EH
