Mix-Tape Mondays: This Time With More Guitars

I’m sorry I’ve left you waiting so long, but never fear

are here!

This week I’m bringing you a playlist for an entire series, featuring exactly one more song than I usually include. That’s commitment, folks.

Kinda bummed that they bill this series as “faerie romance”, because I always felt the political aspects worked like gangbusters while the romances could be tepid. What can ya do?

My original idea was to break it down musically by book, but by series’ end all the plots and characters had become so intertwined it just made more sense to me to pick songs for most of the major players or their arcs. When I placed the tracks in their final order, a lot of songs for characters who are romantically involved or rivals wound up next to each other. Innnnnteresting. Here’s what I got:

1. People Are Strange – The Doors

While I love Echo and the Bunnymen, something about Wicked Lovely just cried out for the original. At series’ open Aislinn spends a lot of time avoiding eye contact with the supernatural beings who populate Huntsdale. Beings made of thistle or vine who would just as soon kiss her as cut her throat. Of course, being Sighted makes Aislinn just as strange in her own right.

2. Summer Love – Justin Timberlake

Charming Keenan comes on strong with the promise of a summer fling to last for all eternity. Warmth and pleasure and the promise of a really good time are all things the Summer King has in common with this tune.

3. Just Like You Imagined – Nine Inch Nails

I’ve often mentioned how I think Seth is described as looking more than a bit like Trent Reznor, and I think of this song as the Seth Argument to the Keenan Suggestion. Whereas the Timberlake song is crammed with flirtatious enticements, this NIN instrumental lets the medium be the message,

4. Lil’ Red Riding Hood – Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

While I adore Irial as a character, I had a tough time thinking of a song that summed him up…until this lascivious tune popped into my head. The Dark King is the original Big Bad Wolf, and he’s all about luring Leslie into a darker part of the forest.

5. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) – Florence + The Machine

Aislinn is the rabbit-hearted Queen who must find her inner lion if the Summer Court has any hope of survival. Though she feels tricked into her new role, she takes up the mantle of leadership as best she can. Will it be enough?

6. Out Here All Night – Damone

A song for Donia, third point of the Aislinn-Keenan-love-triangle and one of my favorite characters in the series, gets  a tune of her own. Keenan seems father away all the time, and as the new Winter Queen Donia can’t even touch him without hurting them both. She’s no pining pansy, though, and she holds Keenan accountable for every decision he’s made. She’s kinda angry, you see.

7. Retrograde – Heartsrevolution

Ani and Donia are both angry, sexually frustrated girls. This song is just for them.

8. Behind Blue Eyes – The Who

Seventies-tinged Devlin, the High Queen’s assassin and potential Ani paramour. He was created to be the neutral point between the order and chaos of his sister-mothers, but he just has a lot feelings you guys.

9. The Sun – The Naked and Famous

The final book open with a Summer King alone and wandering. Brooding. Worrying at the problem of saving his court in an uncertain future.

10. Hardest of Hearts – Florence + The Machine

Ah, Sorcha. How to encapsulate your epicness in a single song? This song is the Sorcha of Radiant Shadows, off-balance and single minded, destructive in her inattention.

11. Omen – The Prodigy

One for Bananach and the ending she craved. What says “embodiment of chaos” like The Prodigy?