It's no secret that 2011 was an incredibly transformative, fun and interesting year for music. Not only did the past year bring you Colorado Public Radio's newest radio station, OpenAir, but it brought you countless new albums. Read on as we celebrate the 100 best albums of the past year. What a great time to be a music lover.
1 through 100:
| 1 Fleet Foxes | Helplessness Blues | Sub Pop |
| 2 Radiohead | The King of Limbs | TBD Records |
| 3 Tennis | Cape Dory | Fat Possum |
| 4 Feist | Metals | Cherrytree/Interscope |
| 5 Devotchka | 100 Lovers | Anti/Epitaph |
| 6 Bon Iver | Bon Iver | Jagjaguwar |
| 7 M83 | Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | Mute |
| 8 Ian Cooke | Fortitude | Pop Shop Music |
| 9 Florence + The Machine | Ceremonials | Universal Republic |
| 10 Wilco | The Whole Love | dBpm/ANTI |
| 11 Paul Simon | So Beautiful or So What | Hear Music |
| 12 St. Vincent | Strange Mercy | 4AD |
| 13 Beirut | Rip Tide | Pompeii Records |
| 14 The Black Keys | El Camino | Nonesuch |
| 15 PJ Harvey | Let England Shake | Vagrant |
| 16 Foster the People | Torches | Columbia |
| 17 Snake Rattle Rattle Snake | Sineater | Greater Than Collective |
| 18 Wild Flag | Wild Flag | Merge |
| 19 Atlas Sound | Parallax | 4AD |
| 20 Charles Bradley | No Time for Dreaming | Daptone |
| 21 Deer Tick | Divine Providence | Partisan Records |
| 22 Wye Oak | Civilian | Merge Records |
| 23 James Blake | James Blake | Universal Records |
| 24 Destroyer | Kaputt | Merge Records |
| 25 My Morning Jacket | Circuital | ATO Records/Red |
| 26 Thao & Mirah | Thao & Mirah | Kill Rock Stars |
| 27 Gauntlet Hair | Gauntlet Hair | DEAD OCEANS |
| 28 The Kills | Blood Pressures | Domino |
| 29 Dirty Projectors + Bjork | Mount Wittenberg Orca | Domino |
| 30 Slim Cessna's Auto Club | Unentitled | Alternative Tentacles |
| 31 Caveman | CoCo Beware | Original Recordings Group |
| 32 Man Man | Life Fantastic | Anti |
| 33 Givers | In Light | Glassnote |
| 34 Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi | Rome | Capitol |
| 35 Mayer Hawthorne | How Do You Do | Republic |
| 36 Lykke Li | Wounded Rhymes | Atlantic |
| 37 The Head and the Heart | The Head and the Heart | Sub Pop |
| 38 Black Lips | Arabia Mountain | Vice Records |
| 39 Paper Bird | Carry On | Long Spoon |
| 40 Generationals | Actor-Caster | Park The Van Records |
| 41 The Roots | Undun | Def Jam |
| 42 Panda Bear | Tomboy | Paw Tracks |
| 43 Teddybears | Devil's Music | Big Beat |
| 44 Beastie Boys | Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 | Capitol Records |
| 45 Tom Waits | Bad as Me | Anti |
| 46 TV on the Radio | None Types of Light | Interscope Records |
| 47 Girls | Father, Son, Holy Ghost | True Panther Sounds |
| 48 Portugal. The Man | In the Mountain, In the Cloud | Atlantic |
| 49 tUnE-YarDs | w h o k i l l | ATO Records/Red |
| 50 Robbie Robertson | How to Become Clairvoyant | 429 Records |
| 51 The Strokes | Angles | RCA |
| 52 Cults | Cults | Columbia |
| 53 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | Hysterical! | Red General Catalog |
| 54 Shannon and the Clams | Sleep Talk | 1-2-3-4 Go! |
| 55 Dum Dum Girls | Only in Dreams | Sub Pop |
| 56 Gillian Welch | The Harrow & The Harvest | Acony Records |
| 57 The Joy Formidable | The Big Roar | Atlantic/Canvasback |
| 58 Mr. Gnome | Madness in Miniature | El Marko Records |
| 59 Okkervil River | I Am Very Far | Jagjaguwar |
| 60 Kurt Vile | Smoke Ring for My Halo | Matador |
| 61 The War on Drugs | Slave Ambient | Secretly Canadian |
| 62 Unknown Mortal Orchestra | Unknown Mortal Orchestra | Fat Possum (Ryko) |
| 63 Iron & Wine | Kiss Each Other Clean | Warner Bros. |
| 64 Little Dragon | Ritual Union | Peacefrog |
| 65 Mister Heavenly | Out of Love | Sub Pop Records |
| 66 Pictureplane | Thee Physical | Lovepump United |
| 67 Zola Jesus | Conatus | Alternative Distribution Alliance |
| 68 Gringo Star | Count Yer Lucky Stars | Gigantic |
| 69 Radiation City | The Hand That Take You | Tender Loving Empire |
| 70 FM Belfast | Don't Want to Sleep | Morr Music |
| 71 Real Estate | Days | Domino |
| 72 Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears | Scandalous | Lost Highway |
| 73 The Decemberists | The King is Dead | Capitol |
| 74 Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr | It's A Corporate World | Warner Bros. |
| 75 Handsome Furs | Sound Kapital | Sub Pop |
| 76 Son Lux | We Are Rising | Anticon |
| 77 Peter Wolf Crier | Garden of Arms | Jagjaguwar |
| 78 We Were Promised Jetpacks | In the Pit of the Stomach | Fat Cat |
| 79 J Mascis | Several Shades of Why | Sub Pop |
| 80 Other Lives | Tamer Animals | TBD Records |
| 81 Twin Sister | In Heaven | Domino |
| 82 Vetiver | The Errant Charm | Sub Pop |
| 83 Fruit Bats | Tripper | Sub Pop |
| 84 Megafaun | Megafaun | Hometapes |
| 85 Go! Team | Rolling Blackouts | Memphis Industries |
| 86 The Antlers | Burst Apart | Frenchkiss |
| 87 Washed Out | Within and Without | Sub Pop |
| 88 Timber Timbre | Creep On Creepin' On | Arts & Crafts |
| 89 Summer Camp | Welcome to Condale | Moshi Moshi |
| 90 The Mountain Goats | All Eternals Deck | Merge Records |
| 91 Active Child | You Are All I See | Vagrant Records |
| 92 Bill Callahan | Apocalypse | Drag City |
| 93 Jolie Holland | Pint of Blood | Anti |
| 94 Smith Westerns | Dye it Blonde | Fat Possum |
| 95 Kate Bush | 50 Words for Snow | Anti |
| 96 The Do | Both Ways Open Jaws | Six Degrees |
| 97 Raphael Saadiq | Stone Rollin' | Columbia |
| 98 O'Death | Outside | Ernest Jenning |
| 99 New Villager | New Villager | IAMSOUND |
| 100 Alela Diane | Alela Diane & Wild Divine | Rough Trade |