Premiere: Huxlii Shares New Single “Pretty Boys Don’t Die” | Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
Saturday, February 15th, 2025  

Premiere: Huxlii Shares New Single “Pretty Boys Don’t Die”

New EP Odds and Ends, But Mostly Ends Out January 17th

Jan 13, 2025

Toronto-based indie singer/songwriter Sabrina Carrizo Sztainbok got her start with riot grrrl band Pins & Needles, building a name for herself in the Toronto DIY scene while she was still a teenager. In recent years, she played bass in Luna Li’s band while writing and recording under her solo moniker, Huxlii, building upon her plaintive songcraft with a style that splits the difference between bedroom pop and alt rock.

She released her debut record, Scraps, in 2021, and later this week she is set to share a new EP, Odds and Ends, But Mostly Ends, out on January 17th. Last year she shared a pair of new singles from the EP, “So This Is It” and “eye2eye,” and today she’s sharing one last single, “Pretty Boys Don’t Die,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Pretty Boys Don’t Die” trades in the wispy pop songcraft and delicate drum machine beats of “eye2eye” for a harder jagged edge, offering a cathartic slow-burn that builds from embers to a roaring blaze. Huxlii drenches the track in dreamy reverb and luminous melodies, but she also delivers it with an untamed visceral element. Huxlii’s vocals initially twirl atop thrumming guitar lines before quickly exploding outwards, layering on ascendant layers of distortion and pounding percussion. By the track’s end, Huxlii transitions from her bedroom to the stage, soaring atop a raging storm of instrumentation.

Huxlii explains of the track, “‘Pretty Boys Don’t Die’ is one of the oldest and most literal songs on this EP. The lyrics directly describe a dream I once had about a pretty boy burning his face. That idea really stuck with me and I wrote the song as a way to kind of understand what I was feeling about it, why it made me feel so uncomfortable. I left the lyrics very ambiguous and repetitive and it’s a song that I feel like has evolved in meaning for me over the years. When I first wrote it I was a teenager who had a bit of an obsession with heartthrob celebrities who had died at young ages. Now I feel like it seems to be about the trap of idolizing beauty and youth. My friend once told me that she thought I wrote the song about Edward Cullen. That felt like a pretty apt description as well.”

Check out the song and video below. The Odds and Ends, But Mostly Ends EP is out on January 17th.



Comments

Submit your comment

Name Required

Email Required, will not be published

URL

Remember my personal information
Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

There are no comments for this entry yet.