Best Songs of 2011 - Honorable Mentions

Annual "best of" lists are a staple in nearly every music blogger's repertoire.  I don't know what it is, but some people just enjoy making lists.  Compartmentalizing and ranking art can be an exhaustive task for many.  For me, it just presents another opportunity to discuss the largest department in my toy store of life.

Being that it's almost February, it may seem a bit superfluous to write about music from 2011.  However, the thoughts brought forth on this little site would be swallowed up in the sea of charts and lists blasted across the interwebs between November and December.  Therefore, I present them to you now.

Who am I kidding?  We had a kid.  Someday she'll view the lack of blog posts over the past month as a compliment.

On to the music.  As my recent tastes have dictated, you'll see a lot of folky-indie-rock type tuneage on the meat of the top 10.  These two honorable mentions, however, appear here for their uncanny ability to remind me of some of the alternative heroes of decades past.  The Joy Formidable and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart impressed critics in 2011 mainly with the onslaught of effect pedal driven shoegaze that comprises large chunks of their recent albums.  For me, they bring the androgynous and epic-scale rock of the Pumpkins in their prime and the energy of the most accessibly raucous Sonic Youth.  While these songs may not have the staying power of the glorious anthems that are to fill the rest of the list, they hit the spot in a very different and very real capacity.  Turn it up.