Album Review: Mary Coughlan, Repeat Rewind

Mary Coughlan has delivered a remarkable body of work via more than a dozen albums, since parachuting spectacularly onto the scene in 1985. Her subtle, suggestive blues, mixed with her own brand of barrelhouse bawdiness connected with Irish and audiences abroad on record, and just as easily from the stage.

But Repeat Rewind has the Galway native at her most contentedly reflective, her expressive voice coming from within the songs rather than being imposed from without. The album is also notable for the presence of pianist Johnny Taylor on most tracks, with his sensitive and evocative playing a real highlight.

‘God Only Knows’ is breathtakingly brilliant, dispensing with the upbeat chumminess of the Beach Boys original to (un)cover a more wistful dynamic inner layer. Tentative piano leads Coughlan into the title track and a rearview mirror view of moments past, from skipping ropes, nuns and other childhood memories, to visiting Brussels with her leg in plaster. Subtly building effective percussion adds tension to ‘What If I Do’, while ‘Really Gone’ is vintage Coughlan, a lost-love ballad with a wistful ache.

The finger-clickin’ ‘More Like Brigid’ puts the role of women in Irish society under Coughlan’s microscopic gaze, while managing to rhyme “noddin’ off” and “loggin’ off” with “stroganoff”. As a complete experience, Repeat Rewind overflows with honest emotions tinged with flashes of humour and social comment. But then Mary Coughlan has always sung from the depths of her own heart.

8/10