deary – Alma

London trio deary are now three singles deep into their debut album campaign, and each one has told a slightly different story. We covered “Seabird” back in W03 and “Alfie” in W09 — the latter an emotionally sprawling track that Ben Easton has called the album’s centrepiece. “Alma” lands differently. It’s the most pop-forward thing they’ve shared from Birding, and also, apparently, the oldest: Dottie Cockram says it’s been with the band since they formed in 2020, changing as they changed.

The band — Cockram (guitar, vocals), Easton (guitar) and Harry Catchpole (drums) — came together over a shared love of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine, and those touchstones are all present in “Alma”. But the comparison that keeps coming up in coverage is The Sundays, and it fits: swirling guitars under Cockram’s vocals, a melody that hooks without forcing it, something that shimmers without losing its weight. The self-produced album was made alongside their longtime collaborator Iggy B, and the production clarity on this track shows.

Cockram describes “Alma” as a conversation with her younger self — “the decision to look after us and become a better person”, as she puts it. The title comes from the Spanish word for soul and a Latin root associated with kindness and nourishment, and that meaning does something useful: it reframes the introspection as care rather than crisis. What caught my ear is how the track holds both at once — it’s intimate without being heavy, a quality that’s harder to pull off than it sounds.

Birding is out April 3 via Bella Union. “Alma” is here because after three singles, deary haven’t put a foot wrong, and this one might be the most immediately loveable of the three.