band crush: exlovers

When you decide to call your band "ExLovers," you better have some serious musical chemistry. And lucky for us, this quintet doesn't disappoint one bit.

Although not composed of real ex-lovers, these London kids make the kind of shoegaze dream pop that sounds like a marriage of Belle and Sebastian and the Cure (go with us here...), conjuring up feelings of first-crush butterflies that go all the way to full-fledged infatuation. They've already hit the road with Emmy the Great and Noah and the Whale, and won a cult following for lovesick singles like "Blowing Kisses."

But despite all this cuteness, the group's boy-girl vocals and heavily layered instrumentals (including some awesome guitar riffs) mean they avoid the pitfall of becoming too twee- in other words, they're totally bittersweet.

After a long wait, they're finally gearing up to release new material on U.K. label Young and Lost Club. So check them out here and let your flirtation with ExLovers begin.