Tanlines - Brothers

There's something so nonstandard about Tanlines. They've got some deep vocals, which in general automatically have this nostalgia of a different music generation, but Tanlines add shiny, quartz-like beats to back up their low-noted lyrics. They're the rare kind of band that can either chill you out or amp you up, like they're the overlap in a musical Venn diagram.

Glitter Pox rating: 74% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Now, Now - Dead Oaks

This song is short and quick and bitterly sweet. Dead Oaks is full of the repetitive thoughts that loop through your head when your mind won't shut off about something or someone.The looping doesn't end with the thoughts of the lyricist, either, because the melody of this song stays in your ear with the silent brainsinging of catchy beats. It just rolls over and over through your temporal bits, nonstop. It's like the happily unhealthy kind of space that fixation is a vice to, where obsession-laced insomnia leads into dreams.

Glitter Pox rating: 67% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Cameras - Defeatist

Favorite lyrics: There’s never been so much to fake

With that low Cure voice paired with a light mimic of softer vocals, this song has you at first harmony. The backup singing is gorgeous and entirely noticeable in a way it's usually not, and the background music is the same. It's continuous and builds an affect to the song that keeps it moving quickly - almost too quickly, like another verse or chorus could be added and you would still beg for more. There's not a lot of lyrics to this song, but there's something about the way they're arranged that's kind of brilliant and almost Bowie-ish. The video is pretty fantastic too: a murderous spoon-stealing wolf that makes the quirky bow-peep fall in love, a dark retelling of a child's fairy tale.

Glitter Pox rating: 85% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Skyler Stonestreet - A Little Taste

Favorite lyrics: baby I'm afraid but I like being frightened

Skyler Stonestreet has a Pierces harmony with Lana Del Rey's sassy sexiness. It just exudes that smoky Jazz feel: red lounge and mixed drinks, or old pinups taped behind an ancient radio. It's sultry, playful pop in its modern incarnation, but the static and syrupy singing add that old flapper era vibe to the song. It's kind of the perfect prohibition song, actually, all unlawful desire and addiction.

Glitter Pox rating: 78% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Pepper Rabbit - Murder Room

Synthy and peppy, Murder Room has a Grouplove happy-as-hell catchy melody to it, and then you're hit with lyrics like "you will never come back / because I killed you dead." It's like Sweeney Todd, a chillingly dark song that has a smile to it.

Glitter Pox rating: 74% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Azure Ray - Scattered Like Leaves

Favorite lyrics: if you could guess how the world will end, would pockets of dreams be emptied into the wind and scattered like leaves?

Scattered Like Leaves' start is straight out of a dark rainforest - it's got this ethnic, cultural simplicity, like it belongs in Avatar or something. And then the vocals start, and the lead singer has this foggy quality that sounds like she knows all the secrets of the world - and they're not pretty secrets. The whole song has that secretive vibe, with an urgency and warning to it inside the calm sweet vocals; it's like a poison dart frog all beautiful and ready to kill.

Glitter Pox rating: 75% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox

Matthew Hemerlein - Gyllenhaal Sandwhich

This song we initially listened to because its title reminded us of Jake Gyllenhaal and we're shallow, but it ended up being entirely brilliant. It has a gorgeous string beginning that morphs into a type of Japanese club waltz, like you could dance into it and never find your way out. Matthew Hemerlein has that Andrew Bird vibe, with unexpected string instrumental and the lyrics of someone who has exuberant amounts of inspiration. The whole song feels very mysterious, with vocals that sound like ghostly whispers and layers of relentless depth in its music. Gyllenhaal Sandwhich is like an abandoned mansion you could explore for days.

Glitter Pox rating: 90% contagious

Hope you catch it,
The Glitter Pox