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

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"