Despite its overriding ubiquity as the theme in the canon of pop music, writing a genuinely affecting love song which doesn’t clunkily stick a foot in one of the bear-traps of cliché can be a tall order.
By the dawn of punk in the late 1970s, songs about love were given a wide berth by many of music's sneering figureheads. In the era defined by nihilism and disorder, those singing songs about happiness were suspect.
