by Devin Birse (@devvvvi.b)
Mary Jane Dunphe’s debut has been a long time coming, the musician and poet has been making sways within the underground for the better part of a decade. Whether that’s crooning over melancholic synth-pop in CC Dust, howling across the ragged garage punk landscapes of Vexx, or showing off a weary country drawl as part of County Liners, Dunphe’s voice has appeared across a swathe of cult acts, always sounding as impressive as it is unique. Yet on her debut, Dunphe sounds her most fully formed and brilliant yet. Across ten tracks of dreamy gothic synth-pop, Dunphe’s voice swells soars, and croons with the grace and heartbreak of a soul lost between scenes in an expressionist film on longing and grief.
From the first moments of the title track right to the final synth swoons of “Saint Dymphna,” Dunphe has created a pop record that defies easy definition. The initial industrial pop beats of the titular opener blister past their grieving balladry with a sudden spike of guitar noise that opens the track to its shimmering chorus. Elsewhere on “Opening of a Field,” synth screeches harmonize upwards into expansive waves of pop bliss. The sounds are so evocative they almost come close to rivalling Dunphe’s voice, a longing breathy wave of bliss that evokes the art pop masters of ages past like Julee Cruise and Kate Bush but bares its distinctive twists.
It's how distinct this album is that makes it hard to categorize. On “Phantom Heart” she seems to channel the aching synth cabarets of Soft Cell and Tuxedo Moon, all whispered vocals and sultry synths laying the listener deep into a heady atmosphere as thick as fog and as cold as mist. Elsewhere she lays deep into New Order style dance-pop with “Always Gonna Be The Same,” the track's bouncy drum machines and anthemic synths would on paper seem the other side of the synth-pop spectrum yet feel perfectly in tune with the songs before and after. Despite the surface-level shifts, Dunphe has succeeded in doing what all the best art-pop albums do, creating a distinctive world in which these varying songs and styles can coexist.
It is this sense of unity that binds the album even on its most left-field moment, a cover of late punk-blues legend Rowland S. Howard’s “I Know A Girl Called Johnny”. Dunphe’s cover slips into the track list perfectly thanks to the interplay of her synthy ambience with the shimmering guitar work of Earth’s Dylan Carlson that mirrors the noirish duet between Dunphe and Todd Berndt. The cover is a highlight that manages to blend the distinct style of the original with the shimmering maze of goth pop that Dunphe has created.
Moments like this of such stylistic fluidity expose the true brilliance of Stage of Love. Dunphe’s sound is so fully formed that it can be stretched and played with whilst still bouncing back into shape. The foundations of booming bass, swooning synths, and crunching percussion form a sonic stage for Dunphe’s voice and words. Her lyrics are at once poetic yet personal as they explore the interplay between love and the inevitable pain it brings. On “Just Like Air” when she sings of having “No cell of love to keep me safe” there’s a twist of melancholy, her words presenting love as a double-edged sensation. On the title track when she echoes across the chorus that “on the stage of love we give what we don’t have” it’d be tempting to label her view as an entirely bleak one, but the raw melancholy of her voice suggests a longing hidden within. Despite all the pain love brings the desire remains.
It’s tempting to claim that Stage of Love is remarkably fully formed for a debut, but that compliment feels ignorant of all that Dunphe has done. Rather the album is a work that goes beyond the already brilliant albums Dunphe has created. It feels like a project that plays to every strength in the singer’s arsenal and then some whilst remaining a distinctive vision. It’s easy to merely compare it to those that have come before to help categorize it but that struggle simply belies the true wonder of Stage of Love. It's an album of such unique vision and style that it could only be made by Dunphe herself. It's beguiling, at once nostalgic yet incomparable to that which has come before. With Stage of Love, Dunphe is trailblazing her unique world of icy melancholic pop, one of oblique poetry, piercing guitars, howling synths, and raw unflinching tenderness.