Kevin Bronson on August 11th, 2014

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With the release of last fall’s self-titled EP, L.A. quartet Dear Boy distanced themselves from the alt-rock masses, with singer-guitarist Ben Grey and mates Austin Hayman, Nils Bue and Keith Cooper affirming their new band identity by injecting some Anglophile-friendly edginess into their pop grandiosity. And so it goes with the anthemic “Hesitation Waltz,” a deeply emotional slow-burner and the band’s first new music since the EP. Produced by Doug Boehm (Girls) and mixed by Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode and Wire, among others), the song “is about the impossibility of reconnecting,” Grey says. “Before every fall, there is a moment that you take for granted. This song lives in that moment.” The quartet, fresh off tour supporting Kitten, is finishing up writing its full-length, aiming to record it late this year. “Hesitation Waltz,” out this week as a single, is for one of those late-in-the-set moments, with lighters held high.

||| Stream: “Hesitation Waltz”

||| Live: Dear Boys headlines the Troubadour on Tuesday, supported by Dark Waves and the Bulls.

||| Previously: “Oh So Quiet”