Frankie Rose is a pop sophisticate with a knack for reading the infinitesimal trendlines coursing through Hiplandia. A few years ago, with Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls, she was early on the girl-group punk boomlet. Now solo, she's rocking the current micro-vogue for Eighties shoegaze pop: guitar-synth swirls, paper-thin New Wave bass surge, space-waif vocals like a spring breeze that barely billows your window curtains. And she's pretty good at, especially on icily bumpin' songs that add an airy gush to the Cure's early dance moves. Even the album's drum-less Calgon, take me away ambient-ballad moments have just enough melodic ballast to keep things from floating too far into the mystic. Keep trendin', girl.

Listen to "Had We Had It":

Related
• Photos: Random Notes

“He Will Break Your Heart”

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."