If you were present on the English-speaking Internet in 2014, you’ve probably heard (or heard of) the iconically semi-blasphemous love song “Take Me To Church.” Its music video, which featured a gay couple chased by a mob (and was released in the wake of the passage of anti-gay legislation in Russia), turned singer/songwriter/artist Andrew Hozier-Byrne, aka Hozier, into a web sensation, rocketing him to sudden fame.
This celebrity allowed Hozier to subsequently release an EP and, later, a full debut record. Most people, though, only know the hit “Take Me To Church,” which means that they, unlike me, may not realize that Hozier, in addition to being a talented writer and singer, is possibly also a member of the undead.
Yes, that’s right. I recently made the long-belated decision to download Hozier’s full self-titled album onto my iPhone. Since I’m slightly deaf, and Hozier’s crooning tends to be heavy on the vowels, I looked up some of the lyrics to help me understand what was being said in the songs... and what I found disturbed me. Particularly, I find that Hozier’s lyrics across several songs paint a somewhat morbid picture. If you thought “Take Me To Church” was sacreligious, you should listen to “Arsonist’s Lullabye.”
When I was a child, I heard voices...
Some would sing and some would scream
You soon find you have few choices...
I learned the voices died with me
Okay, voices aren’t necessarily concerning in and of themself. There’s lots of psychological conditions that might result in auditory hallucinations, and plus, some people just internally… talk to themselves. But “the voices died with me?” Hozier, bro, what are you trying to tell us– that you’ve been dead this whole time?
Not convinced? It seems like Hozier can’t stop talking about death, being dead, or not being able to stay six feet under.
I have never known peace like the damp grass that yields to me
I have never known hunger like these insects that feast on me
— “In A Week”
When my time comes around
Lay me gently in the cold dark earth
No grave can hold my body down
I'll crawl home to her
— “Work Song”
The creature lunged
I turned and ran
To save a life I didn't have
— “In The Woods Somewhere”
It’s almost like he has some sort of personal experience with being dead. Interesting…
This is further illustrated in the creepy, somewhat supernatural song, “Like Real People Do.” While the wistful refrain “We should just kiss like real people do” seems to be a straightforward lyric of sweet longing, but it gets a different context if you look at the rest of the verses:
I had a thought, dear
However scary
About that night
The bugs and the dirt
Why were you digging?
What did you bury
Before those hands pulled me
From the earth?
I will not ask you where you came from
I will not ask and neither should you
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips
We should just kiss like real people do
— “Like Real People Do”
Wait… what the fuck?? Hozier, buddy, ol’ pal, it really seems like you are saying your lover literally dug you up from the soil. You know what kind of people are buried underground? Dead people. It kind of gives a new slant to what you mean by kissing like ‘real’ people… real, live human beings.
As if that’s not enough, Hozier actually takes it a step up in some of his other lyrics, when he goes further than just ‘undead’ and starts blurring the line toward "unholy." For instance, implied resurrection is only one of the references to rituals in his work. In his notorious break-out hit, Hozier describes a delightfully pagan scene:
When the Ritual begins
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin
In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene
— “Take Me To Church”
And then, in another song:
Feeling more human and hooked on her flesh I
Lay my heart down with the rest at her feet
Fresh from the fields, all fetor and fertile
It's bloody and raw, but I swear it is sweet
— “Angel Of Small Death & The Codeine Scene”
Jesus, Hozier. Talk about going from 0 to Human Sacrifice in seconds. What exactly is your game here? It sounds like you’ve got a little more going on than just a little previous fatality.
I know who I am when I'm alone
I'm something else when I see you
You don't understand, you should never know
How easy you are to need
Don't let me in with with no intention to keep me
Jesus Christ! Don't be kind to me.
Honey don't feed me - I will come back.
— “It Will Come Back”
I’m starting to get the tortured submissive love thing that seems to be Hozier’s groove. If he’s as haunted as this song describes, it’s no wonder he’s ready to “worship at the shrine of your lies” (“Take Me To Church”) — after all, “Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me I should know / I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door” (“From Eden”).
All I’m saying is, Hozier does not seem to be your average twenty-four-year-old bluesy singer. It seems to me like what he’s really telling us all is that his rising star may be coming up from a darker place than just obscurity. And what does this mean for listeners? Nothing, really, but it sure does make for a great ice-breaker for parties. “Hey, so, about Hozier… I have some theories…”
