Mary Joanna is an electronica, psych, synthpop and dreampop band whose  high calibre of  sounds benchmarks the new wave of electro-guitar bands talent to recently emerge from the NorthWest. With Mary Joanna Coogan on vocals, Stephen Evans on guitar and Will Coogan on bass and programming, “Mary Joanna” have all the credentials and star quality to be a successful band. Having supported Ian Skelly (The Coral) at Night & Day in Manchester and gigged across the North West, Mary Joanna have just released their debut single, “Fade” (Tired Eyes) which is available to download and will feature on the band’s forthcoming debut album, which is released later in 2015.

As a debut single, “Fade” (Tired Eyes) is one of those songs which is simultaneously uplifting and melancholic at the same time. It’s an impressive number, which gives you a glimpse into 80s new wave nostalgia, whilst stamping its original mark. With her stunning and angelic vocals, Coogan ascends on a cloud like Elizabeth Fraser’s younger singer, drifting through all the ethereal mist.  Proving that she isn’t just a pretty face, Coogan really comes into her own as a singer and stretches her vocal range with exquisite clarity. Along with the robust beats, jangly and reverberating riffs, “Fade” (Tired Eyes) sounds like a less tangled and more breezy Cocteau Twins song, that has been given a contemporary and fresh make-over. Through the sunken riffs, “Fade” drones into a dreampop pool, which oscillates against the cascading vocals.  It’s an amazing song, that builds to a pensive crescendo and whose mesh of riffs scribble and reverberate against the dual vocals.  A band definitely worth checking  out, Mary Joanna are without doubt one of Manchester’s rising stars and whose debut single “Fade” (Tired Eyes) has been selected as my “Single of the Year”.