119. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Mercy Seat (Mute)

One week at number one on 9th July 1988On one of the first warm days of Spring in 2014, I left my flat in Streatham to witness a commotion. A vortex of crows was cawing angrily overhead, and the subject of the fury seemed to be one of their own kind – he (or she) was sprawled on the road like a sack flapping in the breeze while two others gouged and grabbed at his neck. As I approached, the attackers flitted nervously away, and their victim flopped upside down, legs in the air, blood dripping from its wings, apparently dead.As I got closer, and the noise of the other crows disappeared into the distance, he suddenly came back to life – clearly it was all a bluff. He discreetly limped and hopped away to God knows where. His wounds looked significant, and I have no idea whether he lived or died. Corvids are rough birds, but they will very rarely turn on members of their own flocks without reason, and certainly not usually so viciously. If an attack of the nature I witnessed occurs,…