RandomCrazyStudios' First Half of 2020 Awards

RandomCrazyStudios' First Half of 2020 Award Ceremony
7/2/20



 The month of July means that we are somehow already halfway through the year. Getting this far in a year is a very existential moment for me, because I realize that if I'm lucky and live until seventy, the time I barely remember is already a 140th of my life. Nevertheless, we're here today to reflect on media in the past six months, not death. 2020 has brought us next to nothing compared to our normal amounts of mainstream music, video games, and shows. Though, I will review my favorites and least favorites of what we have seen.

First, I'd like to get the only new video game I purchased this year out of the way. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has clearly been the hype of everything actually released in the video game world this year. It is an amazing game, and it innovates the series in exciting and new ways. Everything I have to say about ACNH has been said hundreds of times in hundreds of ways, so I won't go on too long. Overall, Animal Crossing: New Horizons wins my game of the first half of the year award.

Next comes music; most albums have been delayed a lot that were set this year for a variety of obvious reasons. There have been quite a few great albums this year from artists I like including Mac Miller, Stone Temple Pilots, Phoebe Bridgers, Thundercat, and Conan Gray, but my favorite has to be STP's "Perdida". Perdida, released February 7th, is a beautiful, mellow escape from the 90s style of rock STP is none for. It's sad, it's sweet, the songwriting and the production are impeccable; it's really an all-around great record. Still, I hope we'll see better albums in the later half of this year, but it's hard to say. In conclusion, Perdida by Stone Temple Pilots wins my album of the first half of the year award.

Finally, we come to my favorite song of the year. This was sort of hard to narrow down, but luckily I have a Spotify playlist including some of my favorites. Before I reveal the winner, I'm going to discuss my top five favorite songs from this year so far. At number 5, we have Still Woozy's "Window"; a sweet little bedroom bop that I can't get enough of. At number 4, we have Joji's "Gimme Love"; a wonderful, dark ballad with a sick-as-hell beat switch. At number 3, we have Mac Miller's "Hand Me Downs"; this whole album was so beautiful and sad, and this track just happened to be my favorite of all the masterpieces this album includes. At number 2, we have Gorillaz's "Aries"; a perfectly written and produced dip into indie alternative rock by Damon and his collaborators.

Now, at number 1, we have Phoebe Bridger's "Kyoto". I'm honestly not sure what it is about this track other than simply how perfect and powerful everything about it is. Then again, most of my favorite things are my favorites because they are so unexplainably good. In conclusion, this year, and especially its first half, has been complete shit. I really hope to see a turn-around in the second half, but because COVID will persist, I honestly doubt it. Mainly, I hope that soon enough, people will keep finding ways around these new problems and continue like things were close to normal. Nonetheless, the future is unpredictable, and only time will tell what it holds.
Image sources (in order):
https://depositphotos.com/stock-photos/awards-ceremony.html
https://theroarbots.com/acnh-in-the-time-of-covid-a-look-at-animal-crossing-new-horizons-for-nintendo-switch/
https://riffraf.typepad.com/riffraf/2011/03/in-the-beginning-stone-temple-pilots.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Punisher_(TV_series)

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