Idle Time was more or less founded on the principle that enthusiastically sharing the stuff we’re excited about naturally makes that stuff a little more enjoyable. Somewhere along the way, our innate affinity for competition and chicanery, catalyzed by pop culture obsessions, transformed into any number of ranking projects, contests, and year-end games. Water cooler recommendations are one thing, but we take our idle time seriously.

A midpoint check-in on the year, however, has only ever been to return to that simple exchange of so-far favorites: albums in heavy rotation, comics we all need to be reading, or movies good enough for a repeat trip to the box office. Check out these lists, all presented alphabetically, of the stuff we’re excited about through the first half of 2016.

Favorite Albums
Beyoncé – Lemonade
Bibio – A Mineral Love
Black Mountain – IV
Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book
Frankie Cosmos – So Far
The Field – The Follower
Gold Panda – Good Luck and Do Your Best
Hinds – Leave Me Alone
(Hinds and four other first-half faves are featured in the latest Idle Time Tunes of the Month mix)
The Hotelier – Goodness
Kettel – Wingtip
Kendrick Lamar – Untitled Unmastered
The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect
Niki & The Dove – Everybody’s Heart Is Broken Now
Anderson Paak – Malibu
Esme Patterson – We Were Wild
Polica – United Crushers
Joey Purp – iiiDrops
The Range – Potential
Maria Usbeck – Amparo
Venetian Snares – Traditional Synthesizer Music
Leon Vynehall – Rojus (Designed to Dance)
Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
White Lung – Paradise

Favorite Comics
Archie – Mark Waid & Fiona Staples
Black Widow – Chris Samnee & Wark Waid
The Book of Hope – Tommi Musturi (MMDG weighs in on Hope and four other comic book highlights)
Deadly Class – Rick Remender & Wes Craig
East of West – Jonathan Hickamn & Nick Dragotta
Injection – Warren Ellis & Declan Shalvey
The Mighty Thor – Jason Aaron & Russell Dauterman
Ms. Marvel – G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona
Paper Girls – Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang
Patience – Daniel Clowes
Rat Queens – Kurtis J. Wiebe & Stjepan Šejić
Southern Bastards – Jason Aaron & Jason Latour
Spider-Man – Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli
Turning Japanese – MariNaomi
The Twilight Children – Gilbert Hernandez & Darwyn Cooke
The Vision – Tom King & Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol. 1 – Grant Morrison & Yanick Paquette

Favorite Movies
A Bigger Splash
Captain America: Civil War
Finding Dory
Green Room
High-Rise
The Jungle Book
The Lobster
Neon Demon
The Nice Guys
The Witch
Zootopia