Since I have been somewhat absent from the board and current releases, what releases should I be checking out from the year thusfar?  I'm currently playing Dragon Quest XI but we can all probably agree that that isn't particularly interesting musically.

I assume you're aware of Octopath Traveler?
That's pretty much the most popular release so far this year, music-wise.

I'm going to go ahead and open the poll for this year's top VGM albums in the next couple weeks. I think that'll be the best way to get everyone (including myself) caught up.

I'd call Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade 2 the main attractions this year so far. Both are a tad bloated, but plenty of quality material.