Hozier’s unreleased genius left off of Unreal Unearth LP
This 4-track EP features songs produced from the recording and production sessions of the full LP-Unreal Unearth.
Too Sweet begins with a bass groove reminiscent of a seeming bygone era of music. We’re introduced to two seemingly disparate characters. First, a person who is the pinnacle of unadorned necessity and duty- early bird getting the worm. All responsibility: not much enjoyment, unable or unwilling to suck the marrow of life. Constraint as their modus operandi. The second individual “too sweet”-living as a force of nature; indulgent and libertine. Who lives and functions effectively by their own path and schedule-enjoying and savoring life’s pleasures…
Savor the taste of ‘my whiskey neat, my coffee black.” As if one lover is beholden to strictness and routine while their lover is working within their passions and freedom.
Too Sweet presents allusion to Hozier’s full length album Unreal Unearth and the 3rd Circle of Dante’s Inferno: Gluttony. The song teases a balance between being responsible and living life. A responsibility to ensure the succulence of life: A work/life balance and complement/supplement unity.
Wildflower and Barley is a duet with Hozier and Allison Russell. Both of their smooth voices melt together and dance together like tall grasses and flowers swaying in the wind. A kind of love song commenting on the solace and uneasy quiet of the countryside in a tumultuous time surrounding the world. Likening it to the empty streets but roiling upheaval of the pandemic. It’s a track that illuminates how the world can emerge anew, even after great upheaval.
Empire Now opens with a twangy guitar signature from the beginning scenes of a western- as if a showdown is looming. Heavy, dark-toned slide guitar with Hozier slowly embracing a lower timbre, before hitting a lovely falsetto sliding effortlessly into his signature voice.
Sweeping electronic panning to an abrupt bass/drum drop heartbeat to accentuate the Pre-chorus. The possibility of what could be in rebuilding- after a harsh empire falls-when things have utopian and human-serving potential. That the end of what is known, is not how it must be reborn as. The memories of those who sacrificed to make it better- overcoming the “greedtocracy” of the old and embracing sustainability, a healthier Terra Prime for its inhabitants, community coming together without ego, gold and silver rendered worthless to equity and all able to thrive in this rebirth after the razing of the old world.
Fare Well-Escaping the world through any measure of anesthesia. Embracing and accepting the struggles motivating the need for anesthetic. How the unsober sublime is a refuge against the harshness and unyielding winds of dangers current and set to get worse. Doing things we know are bad and could kill/harm/break us. The risk be damned for a bit of warmth or pleasure and maybe making it one more day.. And if it fails, we can pass in a moment of bliss and safety. Falling in love when you know your heart would break.
Throughout Hozier’s repertoire, he shows how he can expertly utilize his expansive and effortless vocal range, shifting octaves as easily as breathing. His accompaniment musicians bring delicate nuance and impossibly harmonious cacophony in surprising and innovative fashion when you least expect. These tracks harken to the themes and eclectic genre explorations of Unreal Unearth.
As of this publication, no official release for a full length album has been announced. This writer and devotee to our collective Bog King waits with bated breath and in earnest reverence to all that has been released and what is yet to come.
