When we published Part One of this series, we had yet to live through the Snowpocalypse that engulfed DC. A work-from-home-days later (and snowball fights and keg drinking) later, and we’re ready for Part Two of our Essential Sounds of Winter series.

Since the New Year, DC has been hammered. We toppled Christmas’s record, with nearby areas reporting up to 3 feet of the fluffy stuff. With another 10-20 inches predicted for Tuesday-Wednesday, we’re pretty sure it’s time to present our Essential Sounds of Winter. So join us as a few of Indie Shuffle’s contributors share the albums that they like to whip out when there’s no choice but to stay indoors.

As with my album picks, my top tracks of the year are in no way meant to be comprehensive; rather, just a sampling of songs I listened to a lot this year and thought others might enjoy. Most of these are dance tracks that got heavy play at events I went to this year. None of these songs have been mentioned anywhere on Indie Shuffle in the last year.

As with my album picks, my top tracks of the year are in no way meant to be comprehensive; rather, just a sampling of songs I listened to a lot this year and thought others might enjoy. Most of these are dance tracks that got heavy play at events I went to this year. None of these songs have been mentioned anywhere on Indie Shuffle in the last year.

While assembling a top list for 2009 I found that there were four albums that really blew me away and stuck with me for the entire year. Trying to choose another six seemed a little silly to me, so here are my top four, with an honorable mention category for number five. Lhasa de Sela and Jay Reatard put out fantastic albums in 2009 and both died young in early 2010. I highly recommend checking out “Lhasa” and “Watch Me Fall.”

Considering some of my favorite releases of the year were not studio albums I decided to split my top 10 into two parts: five full-length studio albums and five other releases. Part one is for the others, namely mixtapes, remix albums, and singles remixed. This list is in no way supposed to be comprehensive; rather, it’s just a sampling of some things I thought were particularly entertaining or interesting last year.

Before I was utilizing several external hard drives, streaming websites, compact discs, and the radio (the radio sucks/blows) to get my music fix. Since I’ve upgraded one of the coolest things for me has been keeping track of my listening habits. So the result of this is my top ten listened-to songs of the last year, which actually turned out to really surprise me. These haven’t necessarily been released this year, or aren’t all the most critically acclaimed albums, but give them a shot, there are some true gems here.

So last year I got a laptop for La Navidad and it pulled my ass out of the stone-age, allowing me to put ALL of my music on one device and keep track of it. The result of this is my top ten listened-to songs of the last year, which actually turned out to really surprise me. These haven’t necessarily been released this year, or aren’t all the most critically acclaimed albums, but give them a shot, there are some true gems here