deary
Birding
BELLA UNION
An early sign of approaching my thirties has been a fledging interest in birding. The other day, a pale dove leapt into my field of vision as I was taking a walk, causing me to stop, disconnect my headphones, and open the Merlin Bird ID app. I’d been using it to record the sounds of birds for “free, instant identification,” as Cornell Lab promises, but now one was perched on a tree right in front of me—I could take a picture! What a thrill.
As it happens, I was listening to an advance copy of Birding by the London-based dream-pop trio deary. It’s their debut album, but even their prior music doesn’t sound like any of the other young bands who bonded over a shared love of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine during the pandemic. For one thing, deary actually got Slowdive drummer Simon Scott to help them record 2024’s Aurelia EP, and another early inspiration, Saint Etienne, remixed their first single “Fairground,” which is interestingly reworked into one of the tracks on the new album (itself set to be released by Bella Union, the label founded by Cocteau Twins). That song appeared on a 2023 EP of the same name, which they self-produced, and Birding is the first time Dottie Cockram, Ben Easton, and Harry Catchpole have done that since then, with mixing assistance from longtime collaborator Iggy B.
Expansive, affirming, and intentional, it sounds like a band well into their second decade of existence. As if conscious of how their diminutive moniker can be turned into an insult, deary have refined their ability to outstretch songs without letting them overstay their welcome. Almost all the tracks on Birding sound like they’ve lived duller lives as demos until something made them click, with every member equally involved in the evolutionary process. Cockram’s confrontation of violence against women on opener “Smile” asserts that the lyrics are not to be glossed over throughout the album, and her tenderness toward Easton’s anxiety-ridden confessions on “Baby’s Breath” fuels her most striking vocal performance. While the guitars are heavily effected per the genre’s traditions, even Catchpole’s dynamic drumming isn’t immune to studio magic, grabbing your attention when they’re glitched up on “Blue Ribbon.” But nothing speaks to the band’s collective intuition like hearing them build a song from the ground up (“Terra Fable”), or knowing exactly when to time its explosion (“Alfie”).
Birding has a way of heightening your sensory perception, the keenness to tune into your environment—as deary do on the album’s ambient-leaning, chime-laden outbreaths. More than scientific information, Cockram has said she’s drawn to birds for their symbolic and historical value, which she poetically weaves into “Garden of Eden” and, a bit heavy-handedly, “Blue Ribbon.” But on the album’s standout lead single “Seabird,” she describes a purely spiritual connection in the midst of despair: “Speak only truth / Can I be as brave as you?” Her pleading voice is hushed, but she’s only just catapulted it into the sky. I was eager to press play again, to hear deary’s truths grounded and untamed, itching for more of the latter.
