Stream: Dear Boy, ‘Alluria’

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Dear Boy in December at the Bootleg Theater (Photo by Michelle Shiers)
Dear Boy in December at the Bootleg Theater (Photo by Michelle Shiers)

“Alluria,” the new single from L.A. quartet Dear Boy, sounds drawn from another time and another place, both them good. The time is early ’90s and the place is the U.K., where post-Smiths Britpop bands were churning out bittersweet anthems to that which is bitter, lost or desired love, and that which is sweet, attaining it. Yes, there is distinct Americanized grit on all four songs of Dear Boy’s forthcoming EP, “Parts of a Flower” (out Aug. 5). But it’s dominated by a romantic, cinematic sheen.

“While we were recording this song … somebody in the control room said that it sounded like if the Cure had written ‘American Girl,’” frontman Ben Grey told Consequence of Sound, where the song premiered. “After that, we all kinda quietly decided that that was what we were going for the whole time.”

Grey and bandmates Keith Cooper, Austin Hayman and Nils Bue worked with producer Doug Boehm (Girls) on the EP. “Alluria’s” soaring melody, the shimmering, sparkling guitar work and Grey’s yearning vocals might remind long-timers of the House of Love. All those qualities are certainly worthy of a crush.

||| Stream: “Alluria”

||| Also: Watch the video for “Local Roses”

||| Live: Dear Boy celebrate their EP release with a show Aug. 3 at the Roxy. Tickets.

||| Previously: “Local Roses,” “The Ghost in you” cover, “Hesitation Waltz”