Good lists and I really enjoyed this podcast. Don't know how I missed out on that O'Brother song/album Felix Falcon mentioned.
My top 5 for the year would probably be:
The Antlers - I Don't Want Love Cold Cave - Confetti Bon Iver - Holocene Jessica Lea Mayfield - Our Hearts Are Wrong Kyle Andrews - Make Me Feel Human
If anyone is interested, I put a playlist on Spotify of my favorite tracks from over 150 albums released in 2011.