Are you having a bad day? Are you tired? Depressed? Can you feel the zombie virus creeping inexorably up your extremities to bore into your spinal column and transform you into a brain-eating sociopath that will never be invited out for a beer? Or are you just bummed that Aras, Vytas, and Tina were exiled to Redemption Island on Survivor: Blood vs. Water? Yeah, me too.

So what should we do about this? Double down on the Seroquel? Go on one of those shooting rampages that are so popular in the US these days? How about a more positive approach. Why don’t we dial up some Newglads and let their Italian Brit-Rock wall of sound put a pop-up blocker between our brain and the forces of evil? Yeah, let’s try that!

Based in Bologna, Italy, Newglads is manned by Matteo Fallica (vocals, guitar), Francesco Caggiula (lead guitar), Stefano Straccamore (bass), Eliano Ficca (drums), and their designated Plus-One, songwriter Cristiano (Chris) Belluzzo.

When I asked Chris how Newglads plans to rise above the morass of indie bands that compete for the listener’s attention, he called upon the band’s positive energy. “There are many indie bands out there,” he emailed. “But we think that most of them, unfortunately, are not carefree enough and can’t deal with problems in the right way. There’s so much darkness out there, especially concerning sounds. That’s why we think we’re able to make people feel better with our songs, lyrics, melodies and our way of making music. Basically, this should be the point of pop-rock!”

The band’s first album, Here There Anywhere Like You, was released in January 2013. The seven tracks are described as “a catchy blend of guitar-driven pop/rock, Brit-style melodies and introspective lyrics about love and dead end roads.” The band has some Oasis-y moments, but the songs are never imitative or derivative. Songwriters Matteo and Cristiano succeed in capturing the feel of their influences within a sound that is fresh and engaging.

In a “Music on FB” interview, available on the band’s website, Matteo and Cristiano provide a track-by-track tour of the album. Google Chrome’s translation from the article’s Italian is sometimes fractured, but gets the point across (we think). Matteo marks “Little Dreams” as having the best arrangement on the album, while Chris maintains that “Whenever It Rains” is “definitely the best song ‘charge’ of the album.” [ E’ decisamente la canzone più “carica” dell’album..] That “charge” bit had me calling up other translation tools, one of which turned it into “one of the most ‘Office’ songs on the album.” But, no matter how you twist the words around, it’s a great song and my favorite on the album.

“We really believe in this project,” Chris wrote. “We spend time and money to make it grow up and we want our fans to know that we’ll be always sincere and we’ll always come as we are, making good music sometimes just for the fun of it!”

And sometimes good music is all you need to keep the zombies from breaking down your front door and devouring your brain.

Here There Anywhere Like You is available for streaming on Soundcloud.  Join Newglads on their website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.