Dictators falling left and right! Celebrity scandals every other day! A Presidential race that could go down as the biggest media storm in history! And a ton of good, bad, and all around new music made 2011 a pretty insane year for, well, everything. The other day I received a tweet out of the blue asking what I thought my “single of the year” would be and with all that this year offered, that wasn’t an easy question to answer.

I hadn’t given it a ton of thought until receiving the message, but after thinking about it I believe I’ve come to a few decisions I’m going to stand behind. So let’s get to it. I’ve got and artist of the year and a single of the year in mind, and I’m certainly interested in what you all think, so get your opinions ready for the comment box.

Artist of the Year

Technically Young The Giant’s self-titled album almost came out last year. With a release date of January 25, 2011, the album has been out for a while now. But it was a big year for YTG, playing at the MTV VMAs and having success with their singles My Body and Cough Syrup. Sadly, this amazing band seems to have been squashed a tiny bit by acts like Foster The People and missed out on a bit of popularity they might have garnered, but 2011 was still good to the group.

In reality, Young The Giant is tied with Funeral Party, who we’ve previously written about, for first place in my mind. Anyway, posted is just one of the great songs from the self-titled album. The song is called St. Walker. I highly encourage you to pick up this record.

Single of the Year

Neon Indian was a band I was always a bit cautious to get into. Electronic music can be a genre hard for some people to allow themselves to like and, while I love electronic music, I just never felt Neon Indian. That all changed when I heard Polish Girl. This great song is like a heavily layered cake of different noises that just tastes perfect. With floating words, a driving beat, and phazers set to chill this song will be on repeat after your first listen, I guarantee it. I was hard-pressed to choose this as my single of the year but I’m sticking to it. Songs like this and M83’s Midnight City are a gateway drug to great electronic music (and they can play it live with real instruments, which is mind bending to see), and I’ll gladly push those drugs.

Now, these are just my suggestions. It’s inherently crappy to do end of the year round ups because just like the Grammys, Emmys, or Oscars, the things that come out close to the awards get recognition while the rest of the awesome music/TV/movies that came out early get shafted. So this is far from set in stone, but what do you think are your favorites?