With another year gone, the time for lists is upon us. I’ve already toiled over my list of favorite metal albums and my list of pop/rock/whatever albums, so the unenviable task now falls to identifying 2012′s favorite jazz records.

In 2012, readers flocked to a boisterous discussion on those times when the Beatles didn’t exactly impress.

We’ve each already had our say, individually. Said our piece. Then came time to meet over the remnants of the egg nog and hammer out a consensus — before we go over the disc-al cliff into 2013.

It took some doing, but I’ve finally completed the sacrifices necessary to appease the Dark Lord. With the fiery strength He gave me, I was able to narrow down a list

This list is necessarily all over the map. Heck, in a lot of respects, there’s no map at all. You’ll find it in tatters down on the passenger-side floorboard. Delving into unsigned bands is like that.

Stay tuned for my list of reissue faves from 2012, from Evol to SRC, from True Hearts to the Ventures, presented as always in alphabetical order. After all, who can really choose, with so many great sounds?

Narrowing down the wealth of pop and rock albums from 2012 into a set of 10 favorites is an onerous chore that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It is a fate worse than death; a grueling salvo of nepotism

Well, of course I don’t think jazz is stupid. I love jazz. But that didn’t stop me from laughing out loud when this scene showed up out of nowhere in a recent episode of The Office.

2012 marked a number of musical events, including the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ debut single “Love Me Do.” The limited-edition anniversary “Love Me Do” single represents just one of many Fab Four-related products released this past year.

The Dinosaurs of Rock roamed the Earth again in 2012, racing up the charts past bands half their age and chewing through expectations. Expectations, you say? I had many. Most of them dead wrong.