{"id":29830,"date":"2012-01-03T14:00:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T22:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=29830"},"modified":"2012-01-03T14:00:15","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T22:00:15","slug":"my-2011-in-music-honorable-mentions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/?p=29830","title":{"rendered":"My 2011 in Music: Honorable Mentions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/2011-in-Review-music.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"2011-in-Review-music\" width=\"550\" height=\"242\" class=\"centered size-full wp-image-30093\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"firstletter\">O<\/span>ver the next few days, I&#8217;ll be listing out my favorite things of 2011 &#8211; music, movies, games. I&#8217;d do books, but I only made it through a pitiful number of books in 2011, not even worth listing. All this stuff is listed on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/best-of-this-year\/2011-favorites\/\">2011 Favorites<\/a> page, which I&#8217;ve been keeping updated all year, but calling my favorites out with a bit of explanation is something I always look forward to doing.<\/p>\n<p>To start things off, here are ten albums (in no order) that I really enjoyed, but didn&#8217;t quite make my favorites of the year.<\/p>\n<h3>Neon Indian &#8211; <em>Era Extra&ntilde;a<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>I came across Neon Indian via NPR&#8217;s First Listen &#8211; I often check First Listen to preview albums I&#8217;m planning to buy a week early, but once in a while I find something I&#8217;d never heard of before. Neon Indian are a bit heavier on the electronic-sounding distortion than I usually like, but something about their sound really pleases me, especially when it falls into fuzzier distortion. Both &#8220;Hex Girlfriend&#8221; and &#8220;Polish Girl&#8221; would rate among my favorite songs of the year, but the rest of the album left me colder &#8211; kind of same-y and unmemorable, knocking it down into the honorable mentions.<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b0Q_JwOqko4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>St. Vincent &#8211; <em>Strange Mercy<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>I can easily see this album being in my top twenty if I&#8217;d given myself more time to get accustomed to it, but I find St. Vincent something of a tough sell, personally. I don&#8217;t know why; lots of people whose taste I generally share love Annie Clark a lot, and I can see the appeal, but she just doesn&#8217;t grab me immediately. Like I said, with more time to let it seep in, it might.<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Itt0rALeHE8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>An Horse &#8211; <em>Walls<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>The third album from this Australian duo takes their basic sound and polishes it up a bit &#8211; not quite so much reliance on the fourth interval, for one thing, which is welcome. <\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KYGIgZtb780\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Braids &#8211; <em>Native Speaker<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>A January release, so this one has had plenty of time to earworm me, but only the opening song &#8220;Lemonade&#8221; has succeeded in sticking with me very long. That song is killer, a pop-happy experimental number that promises more than the rest of the album can quite deliver.<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_CB279zemKU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>The Pauses &#8211; <em>A Cautionary Tale<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;d be disengenuous of me not to mention that I&#8217;m pretty good online friends with this Florida band&#8217;s drummer; I wouldn&#8217;t know they existed otherwise. They have a very pleasing indie pop sound, with strong vocals and a bit of experimentation around the edges that sets them apart from the crowd.<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z8JWG-_eSjY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Clap Your Hands Say Yeah &#8211; <em>Hysterical<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;ve not really liked Clap Your Hands Say Yeah&#8217;s previous albums all that much, but listened through this one on a whim and was duly impressed. It&#8217;s tighter and stronger than what I&#8217;ve heard before, with catchier hooks and a great sound.<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/31IkHoS-sdA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Pepper Rabbit &#8211; <em>Red Velvet Snow Ball<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>I saw these guys opening for another band several months ago and remembered enjoying their set, so when I saw they had an album out now, I figured why not check it out. Often I enjoy opening bands at the show because, well, live music is awesome, but Pepper Rabbit followed through in the studio.<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><object height=\"225\" width=\"100%\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"https:\/\/player.soundcloud.com\/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F955739&amp;show_comments=true&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_playcount=true&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;color=ff7700\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed allowscriptaccess=\"always\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/player.soundcloud.com\/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F955739&amp;show_comments=true&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_playcount=true&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;color=ff7700\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"100%\"><\/embed><\/object>   <span><a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/pepper-rabbit\/sets\/red-velvet-snow-ball-sampler\">Red Velvet Snow Ball Sampler<\/a> by <a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/pepper-rabbit\">Pepper Rabbit<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Feist &#8211; <em>Metals<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>Most people who like the bands I like put Feist way up at the top of their lists. I like her all right, but I just can&#8217;t quite love her stuff (aside from her vocals with Broken Social Scene, of course &#8211; those are awesome). It&#8217;s a little too spare, a little too quirky, or something. That said, I enjoyed listening through <em>Metals<\/em> more than I&#8217;ve enjoyed her other albums. Maybe next time is the charm?<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I2uVRMBD5RY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>The Violet Lights &#8211; <em>Sex &#038; Sound<\/em> EP<\/h3>\n<p>Another band I&#8217;m friends with, but I think this EP is really strong aside from that &#8211; an LA-tinged throwback to Britpop, like a touch of Oasis mixed with a dash of the Libertines, and then a sprinkling of Jack White thrown in on top.<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nV1OhdpZaoY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Twin Sister &#8211; <em>In Heaven<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>A bit of an electropop touch layered in makes this album really listenable; with a bit more time it might&#8217;ve risen higher, but on the other hand, it&#8217;s maybe a tad forgettable outside of definite earworm material like &#8220;Bad Street.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"centered\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_eeZnLX_XBM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the next few days, I&#8217;ll be listing out my favorite things of 2011 &#8211; music, movies, games. I&#8217;d do books, but I only made it through a pitiful number of books in 2011, not even worth listing. All this stuff is listed on my 2011 Favorites page, which I&#8217;ve been keeping updated all year,<a href=\"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/?p=29830\">&nbsp;&nbsp;[ Read More ]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,90],"tags":[96,106,107,108,109,91,110,111,112,113,114,115],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29830"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}