Though the 26-year-old’s songwriting feels very now, she’s not imitating pop-music trends like the heavy-handed satire of Sabrina Carpenter or the very-online language of Taylor Swift. She’s cheery but not trite, earnest but not saccharine. A situationship might be a modern conceit, but “Nice to Each Other” sounds as though it could have been published in any decade between 1950 and the 2020s. Dean captures the messiness of a dalliance with an expiration date for what it is—a push and pull between romance and convenience that is not really modern at all.
Dean’s rich sound and blend of genres—pop, neo-soul, R&B, with a kiss of Motown and the singer-songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Carol King) and vocalists (Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston) that inspire her—also make her an outlier among her peers. Fans have likened her to Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse for the warm and soulful sound that she appears to deliver effortlessly; the most apt comparison, in my opinion, remains Adele, a fellow graduate of London’s Brit School, where Dean says she learned to let go of her fear of putting her art in front of a judgy audience.
“That’s where I met my band and my best friends and like-minded people,” she says of the renowned arts school. “I was able to just really commit to myself and not be ashamed about my love of music and feel like it was embarrassing or over-the-top.”
Dean is affable but a little reserved during our call, which took place the week between her performances on weekends one and two of the Austin City Limits Festival. She recalls that she was a shy kid, and I wonder if that foreshadowed her tendency toward privacy as she’s entered the spotlight. We chat casually about Cameron Winter, the artist she’s been listening to lately; her curly-hair routine (she’s on a less-is-more, embrace-the-volume kick right now); and her current TV diet, a combination of Sex and the City, Friends, and The Great British Bake Off. She’s quick to laugh, her British accent carrying the same satisfying huskiness she possesses in her singing voice.
