Deary – ‘Birding’ album review: Textural delights that deserve more impactful songwriting
Making a good shoegaze album is always going to involve finding a delicate balance between conjuring up texturally intricate environments and still being able to fortify that with engaging songwriting. On their debut album, London trio Deary manage to do both, but not necessarily always at the same time.
The Skinny: There’s a good reason why people still talk about the holy trinity of shoegaze as though there’s been nothing of the same calibre since the early 1990s. It’s hard to shy away from the fact that My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Cocteau Twins arguably created records that didn’t just serve as the blueprint for the genre, but created something so perfect that it has become near-impossible to replicate it.
While shoegaze and its softer sibling, dream pop, have been undergoing something of a resurgence in recent years, many modern acts have a tendency to ignore the inclusion of some vital ingredients that made seminal records like Loveless, Souvlaki and Treasure so captivating. Deary don’t shy away from the fact that they initially bonded over this trio of acts and used them as foundational pillars from which to build their own sound around, but simply haven’t quite tapped into how to make a finished product of the same calibre.
The group, comprised of vocalist Dottie Cockram, guitarist Ben Easton and drummer Harry Catchpole, manage to accurately recreate some of the moods and environments that their influences provided the groundwork for, but their dedication to emulating an essence results in songs meandering towards explosive crescendos rather than instinctively arriving at them.
The songs on Birding come, are pleasant, and then they depart, making it hard to latch onto what made them interesting, and then you have to question whether there was enough there to warrant wanting to go back and check. There are moments that do manage to combine engaging songwriting, curious melodies that don’t simply serve as scenic embellishments, and lyricism that zooms in on themes of environmentalism and the preservation of wildlife, but it doesn’t happen enough over the course of the 11 songs.
Moments of blissed-out serenity, cathartic noise and airy whispered vocals from Cockram take Birding part of the way towards being a stellar debut offering, but where things fall short is their lack of replayability. Toying with pastoral folk on ‘Garden of Eden’ and trip-hop beats on ‘No Sweeter Feeling’ are impressive displays of stylistic flexibility that sit around the mid-point of the record, but the sequences either side of these are made up of songs that are too caught up in their surroundings to allow themselves space to shine.
Standout Track: ‘Garden of Eden’
The Verdict: They’ve got the sound locked down, and their decision to self-produce was arguably a good one that allows them to really hone in on their sonic worldbuilding, but if the songs beneath these environments were more gripping, then perhaps we’d be looking at Deary as candidates for making the holy trinity a tetrad.
Release Date: April 3rd, 2026 | Producer: Deary | Label: Bella Union
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