Rising Brooklyn-based indie outfit Diary — Kevin Bendis (vocals, keys), Chris Croarkin (guitar, vocals), High Waisted‘s Jessica Louise Dye (guitar, vocals), Two Man Giant Squid‘s Yan Kogan (bass) and Adam Sachs (drums) — can trace their origins to a shared love of jangle-pop, shoegaze, dream pop and psychedelia. 

Last year, the Brooklyn-based outfit released the Speedboat EP, an effort loosely inspired by Renata Adler’s novel of the same name that as the band explained is “about living in New York City and the neuroses that come with it.” They continue, “We’ve always been an NYC band but never fully explored what that meant to us. Living here and playing music here there’s a ceaseless oscillation between anxiety and anticipation. Even as you sleep and dream about the buildings and the hum of the street.”

Sonically, the EP’s material was inspired by Sister-era Sonic Youth, early Dinosaur Jr, Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Methadrone, Swirlies and Drop Nineteens. “But at the end of the day, we just love big pop songs that run super loud and fuzzy.”

“Stevie” is the first bit of new material since last year’s Speedboat EP. The new single is a nostalgia-inducing bit of jangle pop that recalls The Smiths and the like, while anchored around deeply introspective and seemingly lived-in lyrics, Bendis’ yearning delivery and the band’s penchant for razor sharp hooks.

“Lyrically, the song drifts through the strange intimacy that can grow through the algorithms—how a face, a stack of books, or a record sleeve glimpsed online can spiral into a fantasy,” the band explains. “It’s about longing for someone you don’t know and the sweet ache of wanting to believe in a constructed connection.”

Directed by Jane Burns, the accompanying video, which is shot on film, features the band in at a large estate/mansion goofing off and performing the song in the woods and gardens.