Slept On.

Eight Recent Local Album Releases Worth At Least a Cursory Spin.

Note to all up-and-coming musicians: Don't release your albums around Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Journalists and bloggers — people who want to help you promote your music, assuming it's any good — are just like regular people and, as such, they tend to put their computers and email clients away for a few days during the holidays.

In other words: You do this, you risk your album's release getting ignored.

Hey, we don't make the rules. We abide by them.

That said, though, a number of worthwhile albums were indeed released in North Texas over the course of the past few weeks — and some of them are actually pretty good.

Here, we take a look back at eight of the better area releases from the past month or so — albums you may have missed if you hadn't been paying attention.

Artist: Mr. Kitty.
Album: Emotional/Physical.
Recommended If You Like: Makeup and Vanity Set, Florene, all things remotely darkwave.
Also Worth Knowing: Forrest Carney has been releasing music under the Mr. Kitty banner for a couple of years now, and, despite mostly performing in the mid-cities, he's had some nice successes — most notably scoring an opening slot for Crystal Castles in 2010, when he was just 18. His music has only gotten darker with age.
Cost: Free.

Artist: Taylor Thrash.
Album: Vacation Mixtape.
Recommended If You Like: Asher Roth, Chiddy Bang, Auto-Tune, hip-hop with an emphasis on pop.
Also Worth Knowing: After having made something of a name for himself in the local mall-punk scene as a pop-punk-inclined singer-songwriter, Thrash has completely reinvented himself on this latest free release. Now he's a rapper, it seems. Here's the thing, though: He's not bad. Not at all, actually.
Cost: Free.

Artist: Analog Rebellion.
Album: Full Frontal.
Recommended If You Like: Oberhofer, The Secret Machines, “indie rock.”
Also Worth Knowing: Daniel Hunter, the UTA student formerly known as PlayRadioPlay! (but, these days, rightfully more notably as Analog Rebellion), released a pretty great half-hour-long documentary about the making of his latest album in Oak Cliff. Watch it here.
Cost: $7, but you can stream it for free below.

Artist: Doug Funnie.
Album: Head in the Cloudz.
Recommended If You Like: Slick Rick, galleryCat, hip-hop that isn't afraid to laugh at itself.
Also Worth Knowing: This Fort Worth rapper isn't afraid to acknowledge his greatest influence — television. His album is filled with samples ranging from the NBC Nightly News intro to the jingles from Pampers commercials. And his name is Doug Funnie. As in this guy.
Cost: Free.

Artist: Tunk.
Album: Direct Deposit.
Recommended If You Like: Bun B, a less bizarre Big Boi.
Also Worth Knowing: Frequent A.Dd+ collaborator Tunk is a burly dude — and he sounds it, too, offering up deep-voiced, authoritative vocals throughout this latest release.
Cost: Free.

Artist: Senor Fin
Album: Underneath.
Recommended If You Like: Avi Buffalo, art school Radiohead, progressive coffee shops.
Also Worth Knowing: The four members of new Denton upstart Senor Fin met while attending the music school at the University of North Texas. These days, you're most likely to find them on bills with fellow Denton outfits such as Pageantry.
Cost: Free.

Artist: B.Hardy.
Album: Psycho.
Recommended If You Like: Killer Mike, what Fat Pimp would sound like if he didn't try to write “hits” and could string together some rhymes.
Also Worth Knowing: B.Hardy's latest release, Psycho, is a couple years in the making, and the rapper leaked the first single from the album, “Killer Dude,” right around Halloween. Think the guy likes horror movies?
Cost: Free. Download it here.

Artist: Snow Tha Product
Album: Good Nights & Bad Mornings.
Recommended If You Like: Kreayshawn, the illegitimate lovechild of Foxy Brown and Twista.
Also Worth Knowing: The Atlantic-signed emcee is still working on her major label debut. In the meantime, she's satiating her army of YouTube fans with this free mixtape.
Cost: Free.

Cover photo of B.Hardy.