They are the blues because they juxtapose - even relish - the opposing forces of nature and relationships. Hozier’s blues are not focused on the cynicism of love and life. It is at once sweet and grim, beautiful and melancholy.Īnd in that the setting of the entire album is found: it is a graveyard, filled with love and sorrow pleasure and pain darkness and light. It is an endearing sentiment, if perhaps a bit noir on the surface. The song speaks of a couple who lie still together for so long that they “become the flowers” and “feed well the land”. However, these lyrics still carry double meaning. (“I have never known peace like the damp grass that yields to me / I have never known hunger like the insects that feast on me”.) Even presumably innocuous verses about “this slumber that creeps to me” or “your hand in my hand, so still and discreet” carry meaning beyond a deep, restful sleep. (The final chorus repeats “I’ll be home with you”.) Then, once the lyrics are fully understood, the allusions to death become apparent. When first heard casually, this song is a slow ballad about a man and woman who feel at home with each other. “In A Week” encapsulates the overall feel of this album. Hozier takes a back seat to the soothing voice of Karen Cowley, who carries the emotional weight of the song, like a specter humming in the night. Light acoustic picking and a plodding drum rhythm are all that’s needed to drive this song along. The next song, “In A Week,” reveals fully the natural, unforced poetry of Hozier’s songwriting and subtly dark themes of his music. The soft, airy blues tones of the song belie the pang of envy felt when he describes his “Rope in hand for your other man to hang from a tree”. “Someone New” points to the loss of innocence after an experience (or repeated experiences) of this unrequited love.
#Hozier alone with you lyrics skin
Like much of Hozier’s lyrics, (“But you don’t know what hell you put me through / To have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you”), “To Be Alone” blurs the line between pleasure and pain, always hinting at insatiable love, yet unrequited. Light guitar picking mimics the fragmented words bleeding from a pained heart while a heavy drum pattern drives the puncture deeper. “To Be Alone” is the album’s first song of straight blues. What is apparent by this point in the album is the wonderful harmony of instrumentals and backing vocals behind Hozier’s surprising vocal range and simple yet poignant guitar picking. The lyrics again hint at a strained relationship without saying so outright, and reminds the listener how easy it is to become distracted from what’s in front of them. “Someone New” follows with a rhythm that teases gospel and R&B at once. “Jackie and Wilson” features a light, head-bopping distortion riff playing behind lyrics about a “vignette” of a relationship which ends as abruptly as the song. The third song takes a lighter musical turn. Hozier’s poetic lyrics build with a steady rhythm into a pained, not-quite-wailing chorus which feels completely real. “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene” sets the dark tone of the album, describing both the isolation and need that comes with addiction. The irony of the song comes in its gospel structure, even as the lyrics build a shrine not to God, but to the singer’s tortuous love for another. This song immediately presents both the smooth lows and the soaring highs of Hozier’s sonorous voice. This song is pure gospel, from the resonating harmony of the piano and backing vocals to the metaphorical religious tones of the lyrics. The first song and single, “Take Me to Church,” is surprising in its authenticity. With a smooth tenor voice and instrumentals that dig into the soul of rhythm and blues, Hozier is primed for a breakout year with his first album. Hozier’s self-titled album is blues, blues rock, and R&B all at once. “Freshly disowned in some frozen devotion” Now, just in time for serious Grammy’s 2015 chatter, we have another artist bursting into mainstream pop consciousness with a sound that both reminisces and transcends the Blues. Their seventh studio album El Camino took home the 2013 Grammy’s for Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Performance (both for the single “Lonely Boy”). The Black Keys are the perfect example of a blues rock (more rock than blues) group who burst onto the mainstream scene with a sound that was revolutionary not in how much it changed music, but in how it reaffirmed the staying power of staple rhythms behind heavy distortion riffs and lyrics of struggle and loss.
It’s a pleasant surprise to see a true blues artist on pop radio in 2014.
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