The Best Aspect of 2018:

The best aspect of 2018 was the improvement to my Good Music hall of fame.  Since January I've added 955 songs to my Music Hall of Fame.  If Valkyria Chronicles 4 and/or Soul Calibur 6's osts come out, that number might reach the magical number of 1,000 before the end of the year.

My music hall of fame stands at 5,319 songs, so 955 represents an 18% increase to my overall music collection.  Most of these songs are brand new discoveries, so it isn't just about indulging my nostalgia but genuinely increasing my repertoire.  So many new songs from my favorite composers -- Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yoko Shimomura and others -- means the new songs tend to even be better than the already hall of fame qualifying average.

The entire rest of my life was required to find the original 80% of my music, so for just one year to provide the next 20% is phenomenal.  I can't imagine a more productive year in terms of amassing beauty.  Even though last year oversaw a lot of wonderful musical additions, I daresay this year had more new good music than even 2017.

There will never be another year like this one.  I've already plumbed the depths of all my favorite composers' discographies, so there's very little left to discover.  Not enough good music is released per year to even put a dent in a number like '1,000', even supposing these aging composers are as good today as they were in their youth.  This was a grand blowout for music, the rest of my collecting life will likely just be a minor footnote.

In subsequent years my focus will be on listening to all my new acquisitions 100 times and promoting them from the status of 'provisional greatness' to 'proven greatness.'  Definitely a worthwhile endeavor, but nowhere near as exciting as the initial thrill of the hunt.

Thank God for music.  2018 may not be the best year ever, but due to all the great music swirling around, it was certainly one of the best.