Music

Heavy Rotation: Public Radio's Top Songs Of 2012

Published December 5, 2012 at 12:00 PM EST

Few artists were played as much on public radio this year as the Mercury Prize winners in Alt-J.

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If there's one thing public radio DJs know how to do, it's spot a great song. They spend the entire year combing through every album that shows up at their station and endlessly surfing the web, looking the world over for overlooked gems. It's nice work if you can get it.

So, as part of our look back at the year that was, we asked some of our colleagues across the country to share their 10 favorite songs of 2012. Then, we took those picks and created this continuous mix of the best the year had to offer: indie, roots, jazz, classical and even, courtesy of our friends at Q2 Music in New York, a little avant garde.