And I will always love you, with the wind, with the wind, oh the wind in your hair

I have a wee list with some of the challenges I have planned, and though they're in no particular order, I try go through some earlier than others. Some of these challenges require a bit of research, some others require a bit more. And this week's challenge I thought was going to require little to no research, so guess what? I did none. And so when I started this week's challenge in earnest, I soon realized I'd screwed up a bit. So what is this week's challenge? Well, nothing more than albums by members (past or present) of The Bad Seeds. I legitimately thought that there had been like a billion of them, but apparently no - there weren't actually that many. Some I knew I'd be listening to anyways, others were like rabbits pulled out of the hat, more like shots in the dark really. And.. huh... mixed results, really.

Day 211 - Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld - 'Christian And Mauro'
Being a huge, huge fan of this collaboration, I'd been meaning to listen to this album for quite a while now. For some reason I never did give it that listen, even though I had it on vinyl - it's very likely one of the very last records I ever bought. I saw them live in Lisbon some ten years ago, and it was quite the exquisite experience. In this alum they do much of the same things they'd done previously done - which by itself is quite, quite good - but there's not really any new ground being trod here. Still, pretty damn good - I'll give it an 8/10.

Day 212 - James Johnston - 'The Starless Room'
Ever heard of him? Yeah, me neither. This was a case when I went fishing for a name, hoping for the best and guess what? This was the best listen of the week, easily. Very beautiful, very delicate, very well thought out, very well put together. Also, it clocked at around 39 minutes or so, which meant it definitely didn't overstay its welcome. I'll give a very surprising 8.5/10.

Day 213 - Barry Adamson - 'Cut To Black'
Barry Adamson had been on my radar for years on end. But just like so, so many things, it never was a real priority. So, not knowing what to expect... I was mildly disappointed. I like Soul/R'n'B well enough, but only the old school kind of Soul, Motown, Stax, all that stuff. Contemporary/modern Soul leaves me cold, and this is much more in that vein than anything else. Maybe a couple of good songs, and no more than that. I'll give it a 6/10.

Day 214 - Mick Harvey - 'Sketches From The Book Of The Dead'
Very similar to the previous entry in terms of me wanting to check out Mick's work for a long while, but fairly different in terms of music. There are certain Cave-isms here, to be sure, but I really didn't find the album to be that great. Not bad - just not very good. It also gets a 6/10.

Day 215 - Naïm Amor & Kid Congo Powers - 'Tucson Safari'

You know, there's a certain style of music I just don't get, and I can't even understand why people make it in the first place, let alone how there are people who actively and actually enjoy listening to it. I call that style of music 'Stupid Music' and I have no idea how to describe it. But this is 99% it.

I went to a Kid Congo gig about a decade ago, when I was writing for an online music mag, and let me tell you - watching people enjoy 'Stupid Music' live was quite the education. These people really loved what they were listening to and all I could think was 'How? How???'

Is this bad? Yes. Is it all bad? No, there's like a good to great-ish song there. But It's so far from good... I'll give it a 2/10.

Day 216 - Hugo Race - 'Dishee'

Ever heard of him? Yeah, me neither. This was a case when I went fishing for a name, hoping for the best and guess what? This was the worst listen of the week, easily.

Some months ago I wrote this about an Emma Ruth Rundle I'd listened to : 

'I firmly believe that people who knowingly choose to unleash such atrocities upon the world should be chained to a post and whipped within an inch of their lives until they finally repent and denounce their works. This wasn't just the worst thing I listened to this week, or even the worst thing I listened to this year (at least so far), it's single handedly the worst piece of shit I've ever listened to. I'll give it a 0/10 because I can't give negative scores.'

This is one such case of an atrocity being knowingly unleashed upon the world. It's so, so bad. So bad. 

It also gets a 0/10.

Day 217 - Conway Savage - 'Wrong Man's Hands'

There's a lot to love here, not least the fact that it's just 26 minutes long. It's also very, very Nick Cave-y, you could certainly imagine some songs from this record being sung by him. There are moments of quiet beauty and soft tenderness here that just do that special trick, and fill your soul with joy. A very good way to end the week, and as such it gets a very good 8/10.

Next week I don't know yet if it'll be something from my list, or if I'm deciding on something else.