I’ve Got A Heart With Your Name On It

Stag Party “Rachel (My Dear)” – Creepy rock songs about obsessive love are nothing new, but Stag Party bring it off with a melodramatic flair, building up horror film tension over a menacing bassline and a wall of trebly guitar tone and releasing it on a slightly unnerving falsetto chorus. What really sells this song is the way the singer intonates the name “Rachel,” investing it with a strange power, as though he has transformed the common name into a sort of sigil through the intensity of his lust. (Click here to visit the Stag Party site.)

Hassle Hound “Lucky Bugs Win Prizes” – This is a selection from Ekkehard Ehlers’ Childish Music compilation, a collection of music written for children by various contemporary songwriters and composers from around the world. Like many of the songs on the record, “Lucky Bugs Win Prizes” only seems to be “children’s music” in spirit, casting off the typical singalong trappings of the genre in favor of an all-ages sense of playfulness and whimsy. (Click here to buy it from Staubgold.)