Year-end list season is upon us! While I know that eventually I should make more of an effort to move away from lists and into substantial reviews on this site… there’s no denying that lists and especially countdowns are just so fun to do. And readers of this page seem to enjoy them as well, so I’ve no incentive at all to end them completely! While lists get a lot of flak, I’ve always loved them for the convenience of collecting one’s thoughts into one place, making it all the more easier to compare and contrast with others. Year-end lists also feel like a great way to finish up a long, tired twelve months – a sort of ceremonial ribbon atop the accumulation of everything that occurred through that time, and a final goodbye before we all move on to start fresh with a new year. And heaven knows this year has been particularly long and tiresome… so let’s get to it!

So I’m sure you might be asking what lists y’all should be expecting this time around. To quell these thoughts, I’ll lay out which lists I plan on publishing in a rough chronological order. While I do intend to keep on this order for the most part, depending on time and energy, the order in which these are published are subject to change.

1. Worst Hit Singles of 2018
2. Best Hit Singles of 2018
3. Best Non-Hit Singles of 2018
4. Best Albums of 2018
5. Best Films of 2018

This basic order depends on a variety of factors. The Worst Hit Singles of 2018 is first because, while I do enjoy writing about what I consider to be the worst songs on the Hot 100 this year, I don’t wish to dwell too much on the negative aspects of the year – there’s already been a hell of a lot of negativity in 2018 that’s not even remotely related to music or film. This is also why I am not writing about the worst non-hits singles, albums, or films; for the latter two in particular, I don’t often seek out those that I know I’ll dislike, so it’ll just be a couple lists of mere disappointments. And yes, I am planning to just get it out of my system first so I’ll have time to gush about the things I do love.

After Worst Hit Singles comes Best Hit Singles. These two are coming before any of the others primarily to coincide with Billboard releasing their annual list of the top 100 songs of the year. The year-end list should be published by Billboard sometime in December, so I plan to have my own lists up slightly before this, if not around the same time. At this time, I don’t know how long these lists will be; the past couple years I’ve done twenty, but I’ve been contemplating making them a little shorter with a list of dis/honorable mentions. Same goes with the other lists – I’ll know when I get there.

Unlike the Hit Singles lists, my lists for Best Non-Hits, Albums, and Films will all rely on stuff specifically released within the calendar year. Currently, I am scrambled to get everything I missed during the year, while also keeping up with new material that has any possible of making my final lists. My personal deadline for the former two is the first week of January, roughly speaking. Nonetheless, I plan to release these gradually from late December ’til about mid-January. The Non-Hit Singles list will come first, since I tend to go through singles a lot faster, while I want to have my Best Albums list up sometime in the next month. Realistically speaking, due to the oddity of the release calendar when it comes to films, I will likely not have the Best Films up until around February. That’s okay, though – I don’t particularly mind having this list coincide with the Oscars!

And in case you desire a more organized version of everything I just stated above, here is a rough list of dates of when I want to have these up:

1. Worst Hit Singles of 2018: Dec. 1-7
2. Best Hit Singles of 2018: Dec. 7-15
3. Best Non-Hit Singles of 2018: Dec. 20-27
4. Best Albums of 2018: Dec. 25-Jan. 7
5. Best Films of 2018: early to mid-Feb.

And, once again, all of these date regions are certainly subject to change depending on whatever happens to hop up in my personal life to delay one to all of these, or not.

I’ve been a tad flakey in past years when it comes to these year-end lists, so I really plan on giving it my all this time around. I’ve been preparing for them all very diligently this time around, so I really hope it shows in my final results. I’m super excited to get all of these out and share with y’all my final thoughts about the wild and crazy year that was 2018!!