watching and listening to hozier perform abstract psychopomp live was like seeing the face of god

Saying this as an Irish person since the new Hozier album just came out and there are lyrics in Irish; it’s Irish or Gaeilge (pronounced “gwhale-ga” or “gale-ga” depending on region), not Gaelic or Celtic or any other name people come up with.

It’s just a normal language that people speak in their everyday life. We learn it in school in the republic. People like myself are bilingual in Irish and English. It’s not a “fairy aesthetic cottage core leprechaun” language.

Please respect it. Our language is a touchy subject seen as how England tried to erase it by forcing English on us and severely punishing those who spoke Irish.

At the same time that does NOT mean it is a dead language. Our (in the republic) road and safety signs are in both Irish and English, same with legal documents. Our politicians speak it, and we are trying to preserve the language!

Anyways enjoy the album!

In the fetal position, sobbing.

francesca by hozier is easily one of the best love songs out there.

the fact that she is suffering an eternity of torture which includes being stuck in a hurricane but still loves paolo just as much as she loved him when they were alive

the fact that hozier said in an interview: "there's no punishment in spending an eternity arm in arm with the person you'd die for"

the fact that she admits that she would do it all again (go through a terrible death and then litreal hell and torture) just to hold him for a single minute

the fact that the song ends with the lyrics "heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i" and were the song played on repeat the end would flow perfectly with the beginning in order to mimic the hurricane

Just rewatched Hozier's performance of Francesca from when he was on Jools Holland. Now I can't concentrate on my work because all I can think about is Hozier on the verge of tears saying he would tell them to put him back in it so he could suffer it all again for a minute with her.

Like who fumbled him that badly that he's nearly crying over the story of a woman from hundreds of years ago?!

Hozier singing I'd tell them put me back in it. 'I would do it again, if I could hold you for a minute.' in Francesca is SICKENING.

Because WHAT DO YOU MEAN you'd be killed all over again just to spend a final minute with the person you love? How does one experience a love so fucking profound that you'd experience DEATH again and again for them?!?!?!?!?!?

Andrew Hozier-Byrne YOU ARE AN EVIL MAN.

And the fact he wrote it WITH SOMEONE IN MIND???? (mentioned on the Zach Sang Show)

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HEAVEN IS NOT FIT TO HOUSE A LOVE LIKE YOU AND I because I just cannot.

listening to francesca by hozier at 2.34 am

its got a little kick

Hozier as a concept is so funny to me. Imagine there's a poet who writes the most soul crushing poems that are secretly about rebellion or horniness. He references different myths and legends and they're usually politically relevant. Then there's some guy who writes beautiful music that is just so so gorgeous to your ears. His songs don't need lyrics to be good. Oh, and they're the same person. Who is six and a half feet tall. And Irish. With gorgeous hair and happens to look like some kind of fae. Like??? If I wrote a story with a 6'6" bard who seems questionably mortal and writes songs so beautiful that his audience is absolutely enraptured when he sings, I think I'd get shit for character design. That or people would only be able to focus on him and not the plot, but I mean, I think everyone's focused on him in reality anyways.

He's like the embodiment of "looks like he could kill you but is a cinnamon roll" bc he's just the chillest guy ever in a very intimidating body, but he's also "looks like a cinnamon roll but will kill you" bc holy shit, his new album has just absolutely eviscerated me.

I FEEL AS USEFUL AS DIRT, UNREAL UNEARTH

girls (gn) when "And as a young man blessed to pass so many road signs/And have my foreign ear made fresh again on each unlikely sound/But feel at home, hearin' a music that few still understand" and "In some town that just means 'Home' to them/ With no translator left to sound"

the ineffable divorce happening a few weeks before the release of unreal unearth realistically means that canonical-hozier-enjoyer crowley has been blasting it on loop and sobbing like the rest of us.

Mind you I've only listened to the song once so this could be totally wrong in like a month when I've played it to death but I find Too Sweet really interesting for the Circle of Gluttony because I can't tell which person he's condemning.

On one hand, the narrator talks about sleeping late and partaking in simple pleasures that are not healthy for him. And we as a society tend to think of those consumptions as having bad morals: sleeping late is lazy, staying up late is irresponsible, drinking is sinful, and coffee at 3 am is unsafe. But he doesn't describe any signs of overindulging which is what gluttony is actually about. (“You don’t got to pretend, baby now and then don’t you just want to wake up dark as a lake…”)

On the other hand, the person being described as the opposite is very disciplined, very health-conscious, to the point of not letting themself "indulge" at all. This could be the overindulgence that gluttony criticizes, even though what they are indulging in is healthy and good for their body, it is too strict and therefore too "sweet" (as in pure). After all, "too" as an adverb makes the adjective excessive. Being too pure and being gluttonous for it feels very akin to "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

It's not about whether the narrator deserves this partner, as TikTok was quick to attribute the song's meaning to. The partner is not too sweet in that the narrator is unable to enjoy the taste of them (as someone accustomed to a more bitter pallet like whiskey and black coffee would find it hard to eat something sweet). It's a question of which is worse: feeding the body or feeding the soul.

so we’re all just gonna ignore this huh

They’re one and the same

If I could hold you for a minute, Darling, I'd go through it again

I need to talk about Anything But for a second cuz good lord what a poetic and intelligent song. Once I saw that it was the circle Fraud everything about it fell into place and I’ve been marveling at how smart this song is since.

It starts off incredibly bright. It’s possibly the lightest and brightest song we’ve ever heard from a Hozier song to this point, which is strange because we are many songs deep into a thus far heart-wrenching breakup album. The tone contrast seems jarring, but we’ve had clashing sound/lyrics from him before.

On a casual listen, we hear all the markers of a traditional Hozier love song. (This is smart because this is obviously how fraud works; on the surface everything seems normal, until you start to see cracks later). We see nature symbolism, we see something that could be attributed to devotion and protection (“if I was a riptide I wouldn’t take you out,” “If I was a stampede you wouldn’t get a kick,” “if I had [death’s] job you would live forever”), and the chorus “But I would do anything just to run away,” initially left me thinking he meant to run away with his love. All the classic Hozier lines.

Of course, though, we know this is a breakup album, and it would be strange to have such a happy song placed so deep into it. And once we know that this song is the circle of fraud, the cracks start to show.

The use of negative things like riptides, stampedes, and death is very smart because of course we know that no one would want to get caught by any of these things, so of course we initially think Hozier is protecting his love. But then, the realization; these lines are supposed to mean that even in these natural things that would normally not discern who to attack, Hozier, being these things, would purposefully avoid his love, because he wants nothing to do with them anymore. He would not take his love’s hand if he were death, and although then they would live forever, he would never have to interact with them again. In addition, there really wasn’t any implied addition to “but i would do everything just to run away;” he truly wants to just get away from this person. He doesn’t want to be anything, but this person, for whatever reason, would make him to absolutely everything to get away. He wants to become a riptide, a stampede, death, and wants to do so and purposefully avoid his love.

Though all of this we realize this song isn’t about devotion, like we (or at least I) initially thought, but it’s about letting go.

It’s not that the song is about fraud, it’s that the song, is, in and of itself, fraudulent in it’s presentation.

It’s so smart.