Death Cab for Cutie covering "Earth Angel" with that soft, slightly broken tenderness is not something you knew you needed until you hear it backing a zombie eating brains in a 1950s suburb. Stubbs the Zombie pulled off one of gaming's best soundtrack concepts: get mid-2000s indie bands to cover classic 50s and 60s songs.
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The Flaming Lips turn "If I Only Had a Brain" into something genuinely unhinged. Cake does "Strangers in the Night" with their trademark deadpan cool. The Raveonettes crunch "My Boyfriend's Back" through distortion pedals until it barely resembles the original.
Every band stamped their own personality onto these oldies instead of playing it safe. If you missed this game, the soundtrack alone is one of the best indie rock compilations of 2005, zombie game or not.