I heard a lot of excellent music this past year. But I didn’t hear it all, and when music blogs, podcasts, magazines, and newspapers come out with their best music of 2015 lists at the end of the year, I’m a kid in a candy shop discovering and rehearing new music from the past year.

Also, sometimes, I’ll here a song myself and not think much of it, and then, weeks or months later, hear it on NPR's "All Songs Considered" podcast’s "Year In Music" special for example, and realize the song is rockin'. I’ll then rethink the song, and add it to my new standouts list.

So, here are 11 killer songs I either missed or overlooked this year.

1. Grimes – REALiTi - This album, unlike anything else I've heard this year, really just goes all over the place. This song is a great example of that, as Grimes' depiction of chill house.
2. Girlpool – Crowded Stranger - This is a record where every song can get stuck in your head. It's such simple music, with two guitars and two nasally voices. Focused on some other songs on the album, I missed this songs's charm at first, but it's got my attention now.
3. Tame Impala – Eventually - I first heard this song independently of the album "Currents," but after hearing the rest of this LP, the sound on this track made much more sense.
4. Alabama Shakes – The Greatest - I guess I didn't take this song seriously at first because the way it sounds on the recording, like it was some sort of practice, messing around result, but it's a catchy little rock tune.
5. Kendrick Lamar – The Blacker the Berry - The frustration in Lamar's voice is refreshing and timely in a year filled with racial tension.
6. Jamie XX – Sleep Sound - This song, along with "Loud Places" and "Gosh," captures the bizarre and ambitious feel of this record that made it such a standout for so many critics this year.
7. Julie Holter - Feel You - This is a soft tune from an L.A. artist who I'll have to spend more time on moving forward.
8. Torres – Sprinter - "All Songs Considered" says this song encompasses everything great about '90s grunge. I agree.
10. Day Wave – We Try But We Don’t Fit In - Perhaps because I was mostly focused on Day Wave's "Drag," I missed the Youth Lagoon-like vocal on this surf pop track.
11. Diet Cig - Harvard - The sarcastic take on IV League pretension blew past me with the first few listens. Diet Cig's just a fun punk band, too.
12. Hop Along - Waitress - I did like this song at first, but I didn't love it. Now, I love it.