The Beach Boys announced on their web site this morning that they will reunite for what’s being billed as “a global 50th anniversary celebration” in 2012.

Anyone expecting the cosmic prog-rock journeys of this duo’s work as members of Yes must have been a little disappointed — and not just with the spare instrumentation.

Here are my Top 10 rock and pop albums from 2011, from Fountains of Wayne and the Jigsaw Seen to Dan Markell and the Sean Hutton Supershow …

Even though I have been burned many times in the past, I still tend to take chances on projects on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. I tend to steer away from his pure-noise exploration, as I simply don’t have the appreciation for it that I wish I did, but I have, more often than not, found great joy in the music [...]

Honest but melodic, spiritual and swinging, Ramsey Lewis’ take on a series of traditional holiday tunes could find no more surprising success than this. After all, “Here Comes Santa Claus” was originally a blandly corny hit single for Gene Autry

Here’s the way it usually works. The end of the year draws closer, and all of the music publications and websites release their “best of” lists. This is almost always followed by various rants about how the lists are “too safe,” “predictable,” or “pretentious.”