Sabiyha is howling out her heartbreak. She's also howling out my heartbreak, and that of so many women before us. The clichéd "you never forget your first" takes on new meaning in "Still," as Sabiyha immortalises raw emotion with jaw-dropping vocals and sophisticated lyrics.
Making preliminary notes on the track, I scribble "new-wave Joni Mitchell" into my notebook. Half a second later, the lyric "a case of you won't hurt me" sighs through my headphones. When I ask Sabiyha if the reference to Mitchell was intentional, she tells me: "This song was written shortly after a three year relationship and, despite putting up a very strong facade, I was really struggling to come to terms with my emotions. 'Case of You' just connected so well to how I was feeling at the time and sort of said everything I couldn't. My break up also happened just after Christmas and my ex had bought me 'Blue' as one of my presents which was ironic!" Ever the storyteller, lyrics remain central to the gravity of this song. They weigh on your heart and burrow into your brain, both accessible and full of wordy metaphor.
If the lyrics express fragility, Sabiyha's vocals express the ability to pull oneself up from the floor, out of the fetal position. "This was my first break up and my parents were there from the get go to support me and get me back on my feet. I had moved back home after uni, been dumped, and felt almost like a child again," she says of the emotional period. "Still" sits somewhere between a sigh and a wail. It's as much a surrender to emotion as it is a rallying cry to her own soul.
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