The Free Design are considered a sadly overlooked treasure in some circles; the rediscovery of the band’s back catalog in the late 90s coincided with the growth of twee pop, a fitting movement for the 60s jazz-influenced pop band to grandfather. Like all good twee pop, the Design wasn’t all sweetness and light. They wrote a song in 1969 called “2002 - A Hit Song” with some surprisingly bitter lyrics about the band’s relative lack of commercial success. And then there’s “Bubbles,” a song that juxtaposes “soap bubbles carry my dreams up high” with “ma and pa are arguing again / today I lost my best friend.” Melancholy twee pop is the best twee pop—you need something to cut the sugar.

Or do you? If anything is proof that sugar and spice and everything nice is all you need, surely it’s the Powerpuff Girls. A humble cartoon show that genuinely appealed to kids and adults alike, the Powerpuff Girls were something of an anomaly—at once hyperactive, super-cute and culturally savvy, and above all tons of fun. The girls also have one of the coolest soundtracks ever produced for a cartoon show, featuring the likes of Devo (not a surprise), Shonen Knife (also somewhat expected) and Frank Black (huh wha howzat?). What’s more, each song was written specifically for the soundtrack or rejigged to fit the soundtrack’s plot, which follows the exploits of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup in yet another defense of Townsville against Mojo Jojo. Dressy Bessy, the groovy foursome from Denver, covered “Bubbles” to provide the third character study (Komeda and Shonen Knife doing Blossom and Buttercup respectively).

So how did Dressy Bessy manage to fit in angsty lyrics about an aging grandma, a sick kitty and the return of Jesus? Simple—they threw out the verse, along with the minor-key bridge, and remade the song without any of the melancholy elements. Now the worst thing we have to worry about is a giant monkey on the rampage. I can’t decide if that’s worse than a sick kitty or just more ludicrous. But before you get the wrong idea, know this: for my money, the Dressy Bessy version has more jangle for the jingle. Sometimes you’ve just got to satisfy the sweet tooth, full stop.