60% of the way there!

Pausing to catch my breath on my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

So, 300 albums in - I must have learned something by now, surely?  Overall, I felt this section to be an improvement on the previous one, but when I looked back there are some pretty barren patches in there.  It's still too male and too old but I think I've found a way to quantify that now (see below).  Another thing I've quantified this time around is how many albums I'm listening to for the first time and the numbers have been surprisingly high throughout, particularly since I think I've listened to a lot of music.  I guess it's just the case that Rolling Stone think I've just not been listening to stuff that's all that great - although if I'm honest, I'd have to say I feel their choices are, in the whole, unlikely to change my views.  

What I've known all along, but is becoming abundantly clear is that the whole idea of just picking 500 (or any number) "greatest albums of all time" is patently nonsense - "great" is such a subjective concept that you're never going to achieve consensus.  Having said that, some of the selections just seem bizarre.  However, I am very much enjoying expanding my musical knowledge - both through listening to the albums and then reading up on the albums and artists involved (thank you, Wikipedia!).

A vague selection of random opinions and statistics about the albums in this section

Best 10 - 300-201

10 again and there are some properly good albums in here - 8 albums I actually own and 2 first time listens (although I REALLY should have heard Little Earthquakes before)

So - Peter Gabriel
Post - Bjork
Californication - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
The Bends - Radiohead
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Honky Chateau - Elton John
American Idiot - Green Day
Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos
Ray Of Light - Madonna
Homogenic - Bjork

Best new tracks uncovered for me were "Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters" by Elton John and "Me And A Gun" by Tori Amos

Worst 5 - 300-201

Weezer (Blue) - Weezer
The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
Sweethearts Of The Rodeo - The Byrds
White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground
Wowee Zowee - Pavement

To be fair, Weezer isn't as bad as the others, but it was such a disappointment considering what I was expecting from it.  The Byrds is the next "best" but again such a disappointment after Mr Tambourine Man.  And the other 3 are just dire.

Albums that I enjoyed most from initially low expectations

Live At The Regal - BB King
Double Nickels On The Dime - Minutemen
Tha Carter III - Little Wayne 

(but the lyrics on Tha Carter were naaaassssty)

Albums that involve Brian Eno in some way

Just the two this time around - one Devo and one Bowie.  And this seems like a more reasonable number than the four we had last time.

Albums that involve Spike Jonze in some way

Weezer (The Blue Album) - Weezer
Post - Bjork
Last Splash - The Breeders

For one brief 5 album period focussing on the mid 90s, it looked like he'd take over this list - but then he faded back into the background, never to be seen again.

Albums that involve Kanye in some way

Four - and three of them were Kanye albums.  Sigh.  And I suspect this number is going to get higher.

Number of greatest hits albums

A bete noire of mine, which I was expecting to improve as the list progressed but didn't feel like it was, so thought I'd quantify it

• 500-401 - 5
• 400-301 - 7
• 300-201 - 6

So, basically things aren't getting better!

Pale/stale/male quotient

I've previously included a Neil Young/Beach Boy/Beatles/Stones count in these breakdowns, but time has shown that I really should have included Bob Dylan in there as well.  However, I have decided to somewhat expand the count to more accurately my initial concerns as to whether the list is "too white, male, old" (having said that, this section hasn't felt so bad on that front, so it will be interesting to see whether the numbers reflect that).  So, based upon the somewhat arbitrary criteria of "albums more than 40 years old which are mostly recorded by white, male artists or newer albums recorded by white, male artists over the age of 60", the numbers are

• 500-401 - 21
  I was somewhat distressed at having to include Bowie, Elvis Costello and Motorhead in here, but rules are rules (no matter how arbitrary!)
• 400-301 - 34
  Wow, that was a big step down!
• 300-201- 37
  And it's getting worse, not better!  I think this section felt better because it had a strong run of women half way through - but Rolling Stone were just trying to fool me (and it worked!)

My expectation for the next section is that it's going to get worse again, but we'll see, I guess.

"First listen" ratio

Something else I've noticed (or thought I'd noticed) in this section was that I knew a lot more of the albums, so was interested to quantify this, counting albums I was listening to for the first time 

• 500-401 - 90
  An impressively high figure
• 400-301 - 85
  Heading in the right direction at least!
• 300-201 - 81
  So by the time I get to the top 100, I might have heard at least 30 of them before!

"Special" mention

Anything off White Light/White Heat is special, but "Fever Ray" (?) is particularly so.  17 minutes of feedback and shouting.

I've not taken a sneaky peak forward this time, so have no idea what's coming up - thank you to everyone for reading and for your comments.  And I'm sorry about the Kanye thing - I realise how upsetting it was for some of you.

#203-201 - Don't worry, there's still some hip-hop
#200-198 - UK smooth vs US noise