Hozier

I've always been an alternative kind of girl, and I love a good dark and tragic, romantic kind of soul, but frankly, I was afraid to buy this album. I was petrified. For some reason, I thought I might not like it. You know how you sometimes buy an album for one song? Well, that was me. Of course, Take Me To Church made my heart pound (and a few other things), but I was so unsure. It's like a blind date, you know? You can't just go and do it! You have to agonize over it and make all kinds of crazy scenarios in your mind. I thought, well, if it sucks, I'll just have wasted some money and time, but hey, he's gorgeous, so what the hell? Looks have to count for something, right? When I listened to some of the other track samples, I was intrigued, so I decided to take a chance. Well, I'm really, really glad I did. But seriously, when I hear artists like Hozier, I latch on, because there are so few really good ones. Listening to this album, to the fantastic (nothing short of amazing) guitar work, the grooves, the vocals, and the WRITING (oh.my.god.), I think of artists like Eddie Vedder, Robert Plant, Jim Morrison, and yes, in a weird way, Rob Zombie. ALL of those artists are like gods of the music industry, and Hozier will be just as great, if not greater. My favorite songs on this album are (aside from the obvious) To Be Alone (oh, so bluesy!!), Cherry Wine, and Work Song. These are fantastic, off the beaten path, and just effing romantic. This man's sexy, gritty, dark and distinctive voice and lyrics, and the musical arrangement just make my insides melt. He voices what most women wish they really heard from the men they love. There's such emotion here, it just seems to seep from the ear buds into my bloodstream and into my very soul. (It makes me a little sad that men don't really feel this way and it's all a fairy tale - unless you happen to look like Uma Thurman, but hey, I can still hope.) Bottom line: this album, to me, IS a religious experience. He's taking YOU to church, for sure, and you'll feel it if you have an ounce of feeling in your soul.

Great CD! Just what my niece wanted. Got here super fast

Hozier's self-titled CD is a great set for this Irish singer. The single "Take Me to Church" is a stunning track with its driving beat and Hozier's vocals part venom, part bliss, "Take me to church; I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies; I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife." What I've read about the song is that it is an attack on Russian anti-gay laws, which I wouldn't haven't gotten just from listening to the song, but is interesting background. Hozier croons on "Someone New" like a soul singer with a pop chorus, "I fall in love just a little everyday with someone new." "Sedated" also connects with me with its sleek melody and infectious chorus and dark lyric, "You and I nursing on a poison that never stung, our teeth and lungs are lined with the scum of it." "Like Real People Do" is a sweet folky track that charms me, "Honey just put your lips on my lips; We should just kiss like real people do." Other tracks like "Angel of Small Death & the Codeine Scene," "Work Song" & "Jackie & Wilson" are also super. This is a great freshman set. Enjoy!

Listened to this again today and really enjoy it. The only song I knew going in was Take Me To Church but the other songs are good too. Glad I bought it.

This love story starts with "Cherry Wine," couched perfectly, with its beautiful quietude accented by subtle bird sounds, on the Wish I Was Here Soundtrack. It started with listening to that album frequently, and then became me circling back to track four repeatedly until it was my absolute favorite song for this moment of my life. So I was predisposed to affection, to say the least. And still I was surprised, bowled over, when deciding to REALLY listen to "Take Me To Church," lyrics laid out in front of me. It has mood, it has message, it has the deepest groove of sexual worship, punctuated with the purest moments of impassioned "Amen." The music became necessity, and I haven't stop listening. Hozier's first full-length album blends the most immediate instrumental and lyrical details with an elaborate web of traditional musical roots. This body of work reaches out wide to draw in the blues, gospel, folk, rock and flamenco, with a touch of the troubadour in it. Think the gritty blues of Elmore James, think Paul Simon, think choirs, think chain gangs. The result is a fully realized collection of songs that take you on an artful journey, with the highest of highs and wretched lows - sometimes at the same time. On the surface, someone looking for a casual listen could just ease into some of this gorgeous feast and enjoy, but my god, why would you leave it there? Even the deceptively simpler songs have some unexpected joy for even the most jaded listener. The heavier tracks - often a dark decent into gritty blues - capture the most sustained ache that can live like a weight in the belly for a long time after listening. As a lover of words, lyrics can be the absolute cincher for me. Once I started hearing these songs, there was no going back. A literal free-fall of swooning ensued. In theme, Hozier tackles overarching concepts that are not new and could easily slip into ordinary in less skilled hands: love, sex, religion, addiction. They never do here. The lyrics take these lofty, nebulous themes and bring them straight to the soil-churned earth, close enough to touch. The deliberate telling of specific details, so freshly rendered through word choice, is what secures the story of each song in your mind. "I was three days on a drunken sin I woke with her walls around me Nothin' in her room but an empty crib" "Calls of guilty thrown at me All while she stains The sheets of some other Thrown at me so powerfully Just like she throws with the arm of her brother" "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 A thousand teeth and yours among them, I know Our hungers appeased, our heart beats becoming slow" More than once, Hozier presents a dichotomy of beautiful, gentle melody suggesting a classic love song, then pairs it with scenes of violence, death and decay. `"In a Week," for instance, is about two lovers laying peacefully in a field - because they're dead. But even the morbid truth of the dead flesh is elevated, and at the same time, they're returning to nature and going "home." Sometimes you have to work for the meat of it, but it's nothing short of brilliant. Religion and sex intertwine in metaphor, snaking back and forth between which is the literal one at the time. The naked, raw devotion to the body exposed in many of the songs is just irresistible to witness, and it's usually accompanied by a rhythm that makes you understand it in your very bones. All of this is anchored with a voice that displays exquisite range in both pitch and power. In many tracks, Hozier can be downright angelic. At other times, it's deep, rich and shiver inducing. It matches every emotional challenge of the styles of songs in between. One of my favorite things in this world is a body of music that makes me want to abandon everything else for a while, makes me want to share it with almost everyone I know. This one does it, and does it fiercely. "This is hungry work." Amen.

Love his music!

My vote for best album of 2014. My #2 vote is The Oh Hello's self-titled album. Both excellent, both different but soulful, bluesy and rich, haunting and beautiful. Alt-J is probably my #3. Hunger of the Pines is a rare song. I echo everyone's sentiments of " WHOA! WHO IS THIS GUY?!" So the new value I will add: For MORE Hozier music, new songs, covers, live versions etc -- go to youtube and feast. This includes the 3 tracks that Amazon [doesn't tell you] aren't on this album: Run, My Love Will Never Die and In the Woods. My favorite video of his YT is the Kilkenny version of To Be Alone. It's a single take -- just him and his guitar, in a church -- showing how f'ing awesome he is. The haunting chorus still gives me goosebumps. And he shows his roots in the Delta blues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH9mRs3sW7A Also, the album versions are more "dressed up" than the EP's -- I bought both, and, as a fan am glad I did. The EP's are more bare, still good. Album has more accompaniment. More bluesy, some songs sound more like Van Morrison, Muddy Waters or Soundgarden. BTW, his cover of Sweet Thing by Van Morrison on YT is also excellent. Hope you enjoy this album as much as we all do! - Mr. G

I have high standards when it comes to the music I love. For me to really be blown away I have to be taken into some sort of new territory. I like my lyrics bold, vivid, unconventional, and moving; I like an overall sound that reflects a mixture of influences, not just some sort of formulaic stuff that anybody of a given genre could've cranked out. Needless to say not much really excites me, but when I first heard Hozier I knew I had to have the CD; this is the kind of album I find myself listening to over and over and over again, and coming only to love and appreciate it more. Hozier has the kind of voice that tears into the passion and the pain of living and loving, and caresses the fragile sweetness woven through it all with pensive tenderness. The songwriting is similar; you won't soon find something this dark and yet this uplifting. There are certain people I've met who speak with an honest sadness and frustration about the difficulties of life, but also with a confidence as if to say, "...and eventually we're all going to get through it and look back and wonder what the problem ever was; it's always like this. It's not fun but neither is it forever. After all, you have to move on to a new worry sooner or later!" This music reminds me a little of that kind of personality. There's no pretending life is sunshine and lollipops; there's an honest delving into what it is to want and to need and to love so hard it hurts...and also a celebration of the ability to live on, if only by sheer force of will, and enjoy the wonder inside all the brokenness.