The Word – May 2012

Ex-builder Danny Coughlan takes his sobriquet from the Garnet Mimms hit. He claims to be attracted to the “adult” perspective of ‘60s love songs – the understanding that pain, though brutal, is temporary, and sometimes it’s throwaway tunes that best capture the heartache. There is much of Roy Orbison and Richard Hawley here, but he’s marked out from other retro stylists by exceptionally strong songwriting. Coughlan has arrived from nowhere with a suitcase full of ballads that, 50 years ago, could have made him a rich man.