HOZIER - UNREAL UNEARTH
Picture this: it’s 2014, the world has yet to get too hectic by today’s standards, and Take Me To Church is playing in the distance. Things are good. The song is good. The song is great, actually. At just the age of 24, Andrew Hozier Byrne was topping charts with this hit. It was fresh and groundbreaking, especially considering the song was a blues and soul style piece that nowadays would never surface amongst the pop on regular radio stations. Now, nine years later, Andrew is 33 years old and he has released his third album: Unreal Unearth.
After the Take Me To Church days, Hozier really seemed to amp it up as an artist (which I didn’t think was possible in all transparency). Rather than giving into the masses and quickly producing new music, he took a step back and truly used his time with thought and reason. Five years after his debut self-titled LP, his sophomore album Wasteland, Baby! Came out at a whopping fourteen tracks; filled with heartache, truth, and dedication. People were amazed, convinced that the Irishman was just another one hit wonder that fell off the face of the earth after his initial success (but obviously, they were proven wrong). The same has seemed to happen now that his name is back in the general face of music four years later, earning headlines such as “Hozier: The Take Me To Church singer STILL Has It”.
Unreal Unearth first began to circulate in March of this year when Eat Your Young, an EP, was released to the world. The three tracks (Eat Your Young, Through Me, and All Things End) gave fans a crumb of the work to come. Unlike Hozier and Wasteland, Baby! These new songs were grounded in funk and soul amongst all other styles and that garnered much attention from mainstream listeners. Within weeks, Eat Your Young became second to Take Me To Church within his streams and by the time his next three singles became ours, the Unreal Unearth tour was sold out.
If I were to choose one song that truly encapsulates the universe Hozier has created within this new era it would without a doubt be First Light: the sixteenth and final track on the record. The closing piece holds every fresh element that can be found in Unreal Unearth: a choral accompaniment, synth, heavy bass, orchestral sections, and that same smooth-as-honey voice that Andrew has. In its entirety, Unreal Unearth is a cinematic experience that really just opens eyes (and ears).
From the wrenching tenderness of Who We Are to the deep philosophy of Eat Your Young to the rawness of To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uiscefhuaraithe), the whole album is unexplainable.
Hozier melds soul, 80s pop, blues, and operatics with something nobody can categorize because it is so new. The fans who managed to obtain tickets to his ongoing tour are in for the experience of a lifetime and for that I am eternally envious.
For a deeper look at Francesca (track 4) and Unknown / Nth (track 15), check out our past single reviews!
For merch, music, tour dates, and more, visit Hozier’s Official Website.