Song You Need: Mary Jane Dunphe’s ’80s time warp

The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.

Sometimes, the best medicine is a dose of the familiar. The world is full of completely competent artists delivering exactly that, but it’s tougher to pull off an open homage to an earlier sound that manages to feel like a sparkling, undiscovered artifact, even if it isn’t pushing the conversation forward.

Mary Jane Dunphe, a DIY veteran of the Pacific Northwest now based in New York, has a flexible skill set and a broad palate, but when she zeroes in on a style, she does it right. Two weeks ago, she shared “Stage of Love,” the lead single and title track from her debut solo album, due out August 25 via Pop Wig Records. It’s a hair-raising, razor-sharp EBM cut that feels as original as it is unnerving. On its follow-up, “Always Gonna Be The Same,” she takes the same keen eye for detail to trace that sound back to its halcyon roots in ’80s synth-pop, delivering a rousing variation on a proven formula.

Down to the new track’s title, Dunphe eschews any and all airs of arty pretension, focusing instead on selecting the most resounding automated kicks and elastic synths she can for a near-perfect recreation of a bygone sonic setting. The song’s carefree sound allows her to explore painful subject matter from the perspective of someone who has already let go, setting the stage for pure catharsis.

“‘Always Gonna Be The Same’ is like a collage of feelings and thoughts and things said to me during a very hard moment of my life in 2021,” she writes in a press release. “I was dealing with health problems with my teeth which grew into an awful infection that caused me to have to get multiple surgeries and even lose my voice for almost a year. All the while my personal life was going through a huge painful upheaval. It was the most internal reflection of the external I have ever had.

“While I was in the first emergency surgery the dental surgeon shouted at me, ‘Open up your eyes, you are in control!’ I was panicking and choking on everything and they couldn’t numb me because my tissue wouldn’t take it. It was horrific but also a wake-up call, and connects back always to this idea of breathing into things that were causing me extreme pain. And that giving up or, moreover, letting go can actually be a victorious act. I don’t have to hold onto the pain in order to honor my journey. I can release it and everything else that doesn’t serve my growth, without grudge. It’s about forgiving yourself for getting hurt.”

Watch the video for “Always Gonna Be The Same” below, and keep scrolling to stream the track on its own, check out Stage of Love’s cover art and tracklist, and view Mary Jane Dunphe’s upcoming tour dates.

September 23 - New York, NY - Webster Hall *

November 13 - Denver, CO - Marquis Theatre !
November 14 - Salt Lake City, UT - Beehive !
November 15 - Boise, ID - Shrine Ballroom !
November 16 - Seattle, WA - Neumos !
November 17 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre !
November 19 - Reno, NV - Holland Project !
November 20 - Berkeley, CA - Cornerstone !
November 21 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echoplex !
November 22 - Anaheim, CA - Chain Reaction !

! with Angel Du$t, Candy
* with Fiddlehead, Never Ending Game, Praise