80% 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, 400 albums in - only 100 to go!  Admit it, you never thought I'd make it this far, did you?  I know I didn't...

There does seem to be have been a step up in quality in this section - generally, I would say I've enjoyed the majority of them (particularly the second half), even if they've not always been entirely up my street and there have been a few pleasant surprises.

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

Best 11 - 200-101

11 this time - I couldn't work out which one to lose.  6 albums I own, 2 I knew and 3 first time listens.

Diamond Life - Sade
Body Talk - Robyn
Beggars Banquet - The Rolling Stones
She's So Unusual - Cyndi Lauper
The Stranger - Billy Joel
Murmur - REM
Different Class - Pulp
Immaculate Collection - Madonna
A Night At The Opera - Queen
Achtung Baby - U2
Disintegration - The Cure

Best new tracks uncovered for me were "Salt Of The Earth" by The Rolling Stones, "All Through The Night" by Cyndi Lauper and "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin

Worst 4 - 200-101

Only 4 I really hated - but there were countless albums that were next on the list as "not my cup of tea"

Tommy - The Who
In Utero - Nirvana
Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

Albums that I enjoyed most from initially low expectations

AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted - Ice Cube
Fear Of A Black Planet - Public Enemy
Ten - Pearl Jam
Parallel Lines - Blondie
Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
Marquee Moon - Television

Some pleasant surprises these, although the very dubious lyrics on the Ice Cube effort didn't do it any favours.

Albums that involve Brian Eno in some way

Just the two U2 albums - Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby.  The boy's losing his touch!

Albums that involve Kanye in some way

And just the two for Kanye as well - Jay-Z's Black Album and his Late Registration.  We're certainly going to be seeing more of him in the next round though - I bet you can't wait!

Number of greatest hits albums

Some good news!

• 500-401 - 5
• 400-301 - 7
• 300-201 - 6
• 200-101 - 2
  

A vast improvement - and given they were Hank Williams and Buddy Holly, both of whom died in the 50s, I view their inclusion in a much more favourable light because albums weren't really such a thing back in the day.

Pale/stale/male quotient

To recap, given 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
  
• 400-301 - 34
  
• 300-201 - 37
• 200-101 - 34

Has the rot been stopped?  I suspect not because I'm expecting a shocker for the last 100, but we'll see.  The criteria nearly meant I had to include R.E.M, which would have upset me, but they avoided it by a whole 2 years!

"First listen" ratio

My impression that I knew more of these albums is borne out by the numbers

• 500-401 - 90
  
• 400-301 - 85
  
• 300-201 - 81
  
• 200-101 - 67

A healthy drop in "new" albums and I'd say there were very few in this section I'd never heard of, which I guess is what you'd expect.

"Special" mention

"Rape Me" off In Utero by Nirvana.  He can't have thought that was a good idea, surely?!?

We're on the home stretch now - thank you to everyone for reading and for your comments.

#103-101 - Three different eras
#100-98 - The band vs the ladies