Every week we collect a new batch of songs for your listening pleasure – plus a classic that you should definitely know and love. Here’s this week’s Blerg Bangers:

Money – ‘You Look Like A Sad Painting On Both Sides Of The Sky’

You’d think the sound of a melancholy drenched acoustic song would have stopped being interesting by 1972. But somehow this done to death formula continues to be replicated year after year and miraculously manages to produce incredible, spectacular and captivating results. Occasionally gently shoved along by piano notes, or with a groaning cello lending its support, the very basic composition of ‘YLLASPOBSOFTS’ not only engageS on a raw, elemental level with the soul, it plunges deep into cavernous emotional depths and sucks the oxygen from your lungs with the pressure. Maybe it’s something to do with the organic, earthbound tones mixed with the palpable depression and torture in Money frontman Jamie Lee’s voice – but this is a song I find to be breath-taking in as close to literal as I can figuratively muster.

Le Pie – ‘Better The Devil You Know’ [Kylie Minogue cover]

I always find it surprising how the true artistic voice of an artist can often be identified not in their own music, but in how they chose to reinterpret another’s. Le Pie’s take on this Kylie classic robs it of all of its original fluster and fun, and in its place leaves a last ever slow dance under the spotlight with a lover you know you’re never going to see again. That plodding bass thumps, that snappy tambourine clap, prickly guitar notes and those deep, round vocals all resonate together equally sweet and sorrowful – like a melted box of heart-shaped chocolates.

Frankie Cosmos – ‘Young’

Frankie Cosmos has been quietly pushing herself closer and closer to the spotlight over the last couple of years, taking a very deliberate and measured approach to just how she formally arrives on the mainstage. The result has been a mixture of gorgeous pop ditties and surreal moments of quirky art, but on this latest official single ‘Young’ we finally hear the real Frankie – part stunning pop knowledge, part quirk – equally introverted and extroverted. Even a pitter patter of disco. If you told me an artist’s name was Frankie Cosmos, site unseen this is the kind of music that I would have expected to hear.

John Grant – ‘Down Here’

Much like someone like Stephin Merritt or Bill Callahan, John Grant is one of those criminally underrated singer-songwriters who are critically lauded, but their unique approach prevents them from ever gauging a wider audience. But his humour, his sensitivity and his brilliance as a composer deserves much more exploration and embracing. Sure there are moment that grate and confuse, but at the bass is as close to original pop music as you’re going to ever find.

Tuff Love – ‘Carbon’

This Glaswegian duo perfectly sum up their own sound as being “aggressively melodic.” The vox are woozy and dreamlike, but the jangle guitars venture into edgy, haunting and disarming territory. This is raw pop that recalls early Summer Flake but builds to its own satisfying crescendo.

Jones – Hoops

It’s sad to have to acknowledge the fact that what is defined as radio worthy these days would prevent anything as sharp and jagged as ‘Hoops’ getting played on air with any regularity, despite the fact that it is phenomenally inventive pop music. There are so many elements pulling and pushing against each other within its confines – complicated beat sequences, delicate explosions of melody, electronic jolts. And yet at the heart of everything is a vocal performance that if it were delivered on a generic, comfortable bed of roses probably would have been a smash. Instead it sits on a bed of thorns and we find ourselves in thoroughly more exciting and experimental territory.

Owen Rabbit – ‘Denny’s’

The coupling of no frills electronica and deadpan vocals on this latest number from Melbourne via WA artist Owen Rabbit invigoratingly recalls the likes of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and to some extent The Hold Steady. But then the explosive chorus erupts into a powerful sonic display that could delay Jetstar flights for weeks on end. So much more fun and celebratory than the majority of internet-tronica out there right now.

The Exploding Hearts – ‘Modern Kicks’ [Classic Track]

You can feel the electricity surge through you from those opening guitar chords. The history of rock pumps through every inch of this song – recalling the dirtiest, sexiest moments of The Stones, The Mats and The Clash – and yet to think that it was distilled and served in 2003 boggles the mind. If 3/4 of The Exploding Hearts hadn’t died in a car accident in their tender early 20s, they could have been a much bigger band. But thanks to tracks like this, they’ll forever live as legends.