Friday's Music: Always Looking - Dum Dum Girls

Another girl band for you! This is one of my favourites from this band, and I chose it with Saba and Jack’s relationship in mind.

Oh I never felt a beat in my heart ‘til you made it start

I never felt a beat in my heart ‘til you made it start

-

It’s been written in the stars

The reason of the hearts like ours

Yea I was always looking, I was always looking;

I was always looking for you

These lyrics are so painstakingly accurate when it comes to Saba’s (initial?) feelings towards Jack. I instantly got reminded of Saba’s heartstone, something which features continually in both books, and how it gets hot near her hearts true desire. I also felt it important how she threw it away in Rebel Heart, only to have Nero bring it back to her.

I hear him laugh.

His name’s Jack.

Heat burns into me. Crawls over my skin. A trickle of sweat runs down my chest. I pull out the heartstone tucked safe inside my vest.It’s warm. No. Hot.

-

As I move away from him, the hearstone starts to cool down.

~Bushra

Friday's Music: Heaven - Ailee

This song was actually a suggestion by Freehawk @eurecalaurice! It’s a genre, you could call it, that hasn’t featured here before, called Kpop. It’s quite a sweet song, and by looking at the translated lyrics in English, I straight away saw how it relates completely to Saba and Lugh’s relationship, minus the romance.

Where you are, I will be there too
Where you go, I will go there too

Their relationship was a rickety road for me. I got mixed feelings for Lugh in Rebel Heart, I almost found him –excuse my language- bitchy. But as I went on in the book, I felt I could look past that and focus more on Saba’s task at hand.

I smile for you every day, I pray for you
With thoughts of you, I fall asleep - I open my eyes as I call for you

~Bushra

Friday's Music: Under My Skin - Jukebox the Ghost

I have a lot of adoration for this band! Not too well known, but unique and quirky. I chose this song because I felt some parts of it represented the relationship between Saba, Jack and De Malo, something I’m sure a lot of us are curious about. It was something new when things started to happen between Saba and De Malo, and I felt like it changed Saba, opened her up. It literally felt that De Malo got under her skin.

I can feel you breathing under my skin,
Yeah I can feel you breathing under my skin

Of course, Jack gets under her skin, but in a different way. Where with De Malo Saba’s fire is sparked and harnessed into this beautiful passion, I feel like Jack is a gust of wind that creates a firestorm of feelings. Although this isn’t the only thing to look forward to in Raging Star, it is certainly something you should look out for. I want to see what Saba chooses to do with Tommo in the mix too, or rather, where the fates will take her.

I don't think there is anyone under your skin,
Like a Cheshire cat I think you're just a grin,
And I can feel you laughing, under my skin,
And the happy palpitations are making me... grin

~Bushra

Friday's Music....?

Hello Free Hawks! Today I decided to try out something new, so instead of a song, you're getting a small comic strip. Meet the chibi version of Saba and Lugh! (click picture to enlarge)

If you have other ideas to be drawn, comment below. Or even better, send in your own commissions! p.s apologies for the hurried colouring, next time will be better, promise.

~Bushra

Friday's Music: Let Me In - The Unseen Guest

I don’t know about you but, this song gives me strange chills. The images the lyrics give out with this sense of foreboding, and trying to keep something evil out. The music of course, compliments his voice, and the violin is simply delectable. The description underneath the video on youtube says a bit more about the instrumentation, and how they incorporated both western and Indian instruments.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of Tommy, and his unrequited love for Saba. I’m very curious as to how Saba and Jack being in love will affect Tommy in the third book, especially after that last scene in Rebel Heart, something I absolutely didn’t expect to pop up!

The days run together

They crowd at your front gate

-

And sometimes in the night

You answer the phone

And they breathe down the line

Just to see if you’re home

~Bushra

Friday's Music: Ninth Ave Reverie - The Middle East

Choosing a song from this band was one of the hardest decisions I’ve EVER had to make when it’s come to music. I started listening to them only a couple months ago, but they’re already one of my absolute favourites, and I love almost all their songs equally. It was between this song, The Darkest Side, Lonely and Hunger Song.

Although this isn’t one of their most famous (they’re mostly renowned for Blood), it moves me a lot. I like how his voice is so honest and hopeful and melancholy, and I love how he says ‘you say a lot of things’, he just sounds really fond of whoever he’s singing about, and really sad. The lyrics in general are so quirky, and they paint lovely pictures in my head. I thought I heard a bit of Saba’s father in this song, with his star gazing, and the whole thing with Lugh not believing in the stars.

I wholly recommend the rest of their albums (they only have two, and one of them is really short). Their music is very inspirational and relaxing, and listening to their songs from start to finish is like going on a summer road trip.

You say you can't stop dreaming about your funeral day

Where all your long-time friends will be crying for you

I'd be up the back with a rose in my hand

And I'd give to you in death what I could not in life

~Bushra

Friday's Music: Icarus - White Hinterland

Casey Dienel, performing as White Hinterland

I was just roaming YouTube a few days ago when I stumbled across this singer. Her voice, combined with the bass provides a strangely relaxing song that I feel like I can listen to over and over. Although some of the lyrics are quite intense, it makes me feel hazily happy. In this song I see some of Saba and Jack’s relationship, and perhaps Saba and Demalo’s encounter, lurking at the edges. 

-

Together going arm and arm, To meet our solitude, to meet it head on, I'll meet you where the water's warm, To meet my solitude, to meet it head on

 -

Though I can see clearly ahead of me, I cannot stop it once I'm set a-spinning, What can it mean? Why must I always see, the ending at the beginning?

~Bushra

Friday's Music: The Lion's Roar - First Aid Kit

Folk isn't a genre I’d normally opt for, but First Aid Kit have whisked me away with their music and voices and lyrics. I got caught up in their passion, and the wistful melancholia which is especially evident in this song. The song actually first reminded me of Molly Pratt and Ike’s relationship. Her devastation at his death haunted me quite a bit in the beginning of Rebel Heart, and I started to fear for Jack and Saba’s relationship, hoping Moira would spare us any affliction that’d surely come to us if either of them was hurt!

This verse reminds me of how Saba changes when she’s around Jack, how much softer she gets around him, and how forlorn she is when he’s not there.

Sometimes I wish I could find my Rosemary Hill

I'd sit there and look at the deserted lakes and I'd sing

And every once in a while I'd sing a song for you

That would rise above the mountains and the stars and the sea

And if I wanted it to it would lead you back to me

I urge you to check out the rest of their music, it won't disappoint.

~Bushra

Friday's Music: Come Talk to Me (cover) - Bon Iver

This song was originally written by Peter Gabriel.

Today, I bring to you this wonderful cover of Come Talk to Me, done by Bon Iver (I personally prefer this version of the song to the original one). The music flows so beautifully, it makes you relax and close your eyes and dream of a cabin near a valley where the air is sweet and you're always in a state of harmony, all your problems are solvable. This imagery contrasts greatly with Saba’s adventure, battling the harsh red sand, toiling away to get what she wants and needs. It also reminds me of Saba and Lugh’s relationship in Rebel Heart, and how broken it slowly became, which made me really sad, because if it wasn't for Saba’s sisterly love for Lugh, the story would've gone down a different route altogether. I really want them to bond again, and for Lugh to tell Saba everything that happened to him while she was on her way to finding him.

In the swirling curling storm of desire, Unuttered words hold fast

-

I can imagine the moment, Breaking out through the silence, All the things that we both might say, And the heart, it will not be denied, 'Til we're both on the same damn side, All the barriers blown away

-

I said please talk to me, Won't you please come talk to me?, Just like it used to be, Come on, come talk to me

~Bushra

Friday's Music: Seven Day Mile - The Frames

This friday, I chose to share with you Seven Day Mile by The Frames, a brilliant band from Dublin. I fell in love with their music after watching a heartbreaking film called Once, featuring Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard (marvelous people)!

I picked this song in particular because it makes me anticipate how the story will conclude.When will our friends get the rest they deserve? When will all those loose ends be tied? The song's telling Saba to carry on, that soon all of this will be over, after just one more adventure. This song again, reminded me of the themes of fate and destiny in this story, ''I don't have a choice in this, it's a road I've come upon''.

I urge you to listen to the rest of their music, especially Falling Slowly and Revelate.
-
And down here nothing gets chance

It's a world too big for us

Time will be the judge of all here

~Bushra