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Dec 05, 2023 By Caleb Campbell

Earlier this month, indie singer/songwriter dery has shared her third full-length record, fittingly entitled chapter three. The record follows 2019’s chapter one and last year’s chapter two, a pair of records that cemented dery’s smoky and shadowy style of pop music, pulling in influences from jazz, vocal pop songstresses, and indie singer/songwriters. Today, following the record’s release, she’s back with a video for one of the album’s highlights, “unsurprising,” premiering with Under the Reader.

With “unsurprising,” dery starts small and steadily grows in scale. The track opens in an intimate mode with dery’s glassy vocals burnished by chilly synth tones, but as the song winds onward it fully unfurls into a golden-hued sprawl. The track’s melancholic undertone gives way to bursts of wistful and nostalgic color as starry guitar and synth tones dance in and out of the mix, all while dery’s lyrics trace the outlines of a treasured and tragic romance. She sings, “Black, white to gray / You don’t want me to stay / Watch all the edges dissolve out / Till your house in the hills becomes less loud / Yeah, it kills me to me know / That I’ll have to let you go.” By the track’s end, listeners are left with a warm indie pop confessional in the vein of artists like Samia or Holly Humberstone, coating stories of heartache in balmy guitar textures and sing-along melodies.

dery says of the track and accompanying video, “unsurprising” serves as a poignant narrative depicting the aftermath of a breakup. Filmed across settings in Los Angeles and the desert of Joshua Tree, the supporting music video vividly captures the emotional journey of its protagonist. The track delves into the complexities of dealing with heartache, disillusionment, and the profound sting of being swiftly replaced. Despite the pain, there’s a poignant acceptance of the inevitable, as the protagonist grapples with the bitterness and inevitability of the relationship’s end.”

Check out the song and video below. dery’s new album, chapter three, is out everywhere now.