The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild single-handedly rejuvenated the medium of video games for me. The 2010’s was a dark time in video games. I wasn’t into what was mainstream at the time. Even my reliable franchises left me wanting. Microtransactions ruined NBA 2K. Pokemon struggled its glacial transition into 3D. Even Mario languished, stuck in his "New Super Mario" phase. The last two Zelda games, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were okay but perfunctory. The Wii U didn’t sell well and Nintendo allegedly was grim as the Switch launched. I picked it up as soon as I could mostly because I thought it might be the last console they released, a real concern at the time. Video games left me behind years ago by this point, but when I booted up Breath of the Wild, I was swept back into it.

For fans and non-fans alike, countless thoughts raced through our heads the night of March 11, 2020 — the night the NBA shut down its season. A new reality formed, and the shadow of much larger issues climbed. For the NBA fan, it the latest event in a joyless season that refused to disassociate from the real-world-muck we sought to take a break from. (The top two teams all season were the Lakers and the Kawhi's, *yeesh*.) For the Spur fan though, there was a silver-and-black lining. *"Will we get to keep the streak **and** the lottery pick?"*

Tokyo Jihen resumes their legacy of creating professional-quality music that moves no needles. Do I need to elaborate any further?

Sandoukushi is weird and mature. Shiina puzzles together her last five years of music in a sequence thats worth your attention.

As I put the finishing touches on my top 50 list/write up/descent into madness, I wanted to talk about seven albums that aren't making my list this year, but are worth discussion and attention. Like last year, I wanted to limit my honorable mentions to new artists who I hope and expect to improve in the near future. However, this year I included a couple of releases that didn't make my list because of my own shortcomings -- but I'll explain that when I get to them.

I'm not going to do a traditional honorable mentions, just missed the cut, list this year. I don't need to tell you the merits of the new Grizzly Bear or Jack White records; records that you are well aware of even if they are not included on my end of year list. This year, I wanted to reserve the honorable mentions for artists that you might not know about, artists that are new to the scene or just under loved. Artists that I want to keep an eye out for in the future and hope to see bigger things from in the future.

I'm not going to do a traditional honorable mentions, just missed the cut, list this year. I don't need to tell you the merits of the new Grizzly Bear or Jack White records; records that you are well aware of even if they are not included on my end of year list. This year, I wanted to reserve the honorable mentions for artists that you might not know about, artists that are new to the scene or just under loved. Artists that I want to keep an eye out for in the future and hope to see bigger things from in the future.

Call it a compulsion. I have compiled and ranked a list of my twenty favorite albums. Many argue the futility in such an exercise. “Why do you need rank things you already like? Just enjoy them equally!” It isn’t so much that X has to be better than or inferior to Y and for some reason I need to know this. Tastes change and feelings towards things like music change and maybe I like to see these changes, these relations, and consider what they mean. If they do mean anything, that is. For my three middle-school years, every week I would compile a “top 10” list of my favorite songs of that week and play the 10 songs in order in my room, making an impromptu show for myself to both direct and enjoy. This was religion. As eluded, only part of the fun was blasting the music from my stereo. I would keep all the weekly lists in a white binder, where the real fun lived. With this data, I would go and tabulate how long certain songs were on the list, how fast they ascended and fell, how long they occupied the top spot. Perhaps simply out of this programming is why I enjoy list-making in general. But I believe it’s deeper than that. I believe by doing this exercise I can to learn more about my tastes, the music, and ultimately myself.