The story of a couple decomposing in a field doesn’t immediately sound like the basis for a stunningly beautiful ballad but somehow, Hozier manages to turn his macabre subject matter on Karen Cowley duet In A Week into something beautiful.
This basically captures the tone of Andrew Hozier-Byrne’s self-titled debut, which seamlessly blends his dark and close-to-the-bone lyricism with upbeat melodies that belie the themes beneath.
Hozier is, without doubt, the most highly anticipated album of the year and following the reaction to his flawless set at Electric Picnic, it’s not all that surprising that the release went platinum in its first week.
However, given the state of the music industry, this is an achievement not to be dismissed and an observation from Kilkenny’s Rollercoaster Records that the album is selling like they “used to in ye old days” is pretty bang on the money.
With hype like this, it would be very easy for Hozier to fall short of expectation but luckily, it exceeds it.
I’ll admit to being sceptical that the Wicklow man could maintain the heights of Take Me To Church across an entire album but after listening to Hozier on repeat for the last week, the opening track is, on occasion, outshone by the new material.
Jackie and Wilson and Someone New are catchy pop tunes that are screaming out for radio play, while Angel Of Small Death, To Be Alone and It Will Come Back see Hozier’s blues influences coming to the fore.
Old favourites like From Eden, Sedated and Work Song sound even better in the context of the album and in our humble opinion, the deluxe version is definitely worth the extra shillings as Run, Arsonist’s Lullabye and the understated My Love Will Never Die are as good as any of the tracks on the album.
While his bellowing chorus on Take Me To Church demonstrates that Hozier has a dynamic vocal range, it’s his willingness to hold back in favour of light and staccato notes on songs like To Be Alone that takes things to another level.
With a Jools Holland appearance under his belt and an SNL slot on the cards, it seems like it’s only a matter of time until Hozier breaks the US and the secret to his success seems to lie in his effortless knack of combining lyrics that would make Nick Cave blush with accessible and undeniably catchy hooks. While sex is a forthright theme throughout the album, there’s also an overriding arch of tragic romance… and let’s face it, we’re all a bit of a sucker for that.
If forced to find fault with this debut offering, Foreigner’s God and bonus track In The Woods Somewhere perhaps dip below the overall standard of the album but it seems that the only difficulty Hozier is going to have is finding new ground to conquer.
