Thanks for all the love on this video!!! 🥰🥰 if you wanna watch the version with no cuts in the songs and analysis its on Patreon :) www.patreon.com/luscent
son of nyx is actually a piece of alex, his bassist which he wrote in memory of his dead father (nick) that’s why it’s called son of nyx. it also functions as a track to transfer us to the darker side of the album, quite literally crossing the river styx. it’s an amazing piece
Francesca has so much meaning and is actually one of my favorites on the album! it's inspired by a couple in 14-century italy, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Francesca was married off in a political marriage to a man much older than her, Giovanni. instead, she falls in love with Paolo, who is Giovanni's younger brother. they have an affair, but when Giovanni finds out, he murders both of them. in Dante's "Inferno," Francesca and Paolo are in the 2nd circle of Hell, Lust, where their punishment is to be tossed around in a hurricane for eternity, and Hozier mentions it representing them being "swept off their feet" and their love for each other being so strong. Dante says that their two "shades," or souls, were so closely intertwined that they could be seen as one. that's basically what the song is about/inspired by and literally almost makes me cry every time, especially the lyric "heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i" in the outro.
I Loved the references to the Devine comedy, I picked it up as soon as I heard the song, Although I thought the part where he says "I'll tell them put me back in" for a minute I thought it might be about Dante himself going through hell again for Beatrice. But thank you for your explanation.
For me, Butchered Tongue just hits me so much deeper after hearing him speak Gaelic throughout which is something he hasn't done in past albums and it's just so so beautiful and haunting
I struggle listening to Butchered Tongue without crying, as an indigenous person constantly seeing roadsigns with names given by our ancestors getting spray painted over or just vandalized in general the song means so much to me. The place names here were given to describe the land, describing lakes and mountains and it was all named with a purpose. There are so few people that know what those names mean, where they come from because "it just means home to them". My familys/ancestors language has already gone extinct like so many other indigenous languages and god the song is so incredibly important and absolutely hearbreaking.
In my country the language spoken by a lot of the indigenous people from this part of the world is an official language, it's called guaraní, it's taught in schools as part of the curriculum in every school of the country and everyone can at least understand it but young people won't speak it because they find it ugly and it's sad. And sadly indigenous people are mistreated a lot.
Loving Ireland as I do (hi from Argentina), its history, its culture, its people, their strength and everything they had gone through, Butchered Tongue shattered my heart.
@GrainneMhaol The fact that he compared it to towns in the USA named after dead languages of the native Americans that no longer have meaning and are no longer understood, and can no longer be translated, so the town name means nothing more than "home to them" was beautiful because it showed that despite the attempted destruction of the people and the language of Ireland, it still lives, is used and is understood. Absolutely beautiful.
I was NOT prepared for this album. Abstract (Psychopomp) in particular got me good. The imagery of holding roadkill in the street having hit it, the tears running down your face shining in the light. God. This man could do no wrong.
I cannot listen to Abstract without breaking into tears. Even when I swear I won't. I do. I saw him live recently, and I cannot describe what it did to me. It's terribly sad, but still uplifting... I can't. ..
Eat your young is actually a reference to a essay from 1729 (A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift) that says that a solution to poverty in Ireland would be that poor people sold their children for the rich to eat.
Haha, yeah.. it was a piss take at they english at they time .. because of all they bad treatment they gave to they irish .... after all Jonathan swift was irish
Your raw reaction to Hozier's music is really interesting and emotional. Your response to Butchered Tongue is right on the money. As an Irish person and speaker of Irish, I found this song so heartbreaking. Not all of this songs are personal though, may of his references are literary, like Francesca which is based on a love story in Dante's Inferno. Eat Your Young takes inspiration from Swift's A Modest Proposal, and satirically suggests that the war-mongers and capitalist skip the destruction of their children's future and just eat them instead. I love this album beyond all reason.
Eat your young gave me the same vibes as American teenager by Ethel Cain where, at first sight, it's kind of a poppy song, but in reality it narrates the greed of our leaders and the cost it comes with
Butchered tongue honestly absolutely kills me. I’m about 50% Native American, but despite that I’ve never learned anything about the culture and I even have a not-so-distant relative that was so racist against natives that he erased all of our connection to the tribe we were from. This is an absolutely beautiful nod to other colonized cultures while it pays respects to the Irish people that were killed by the British.
All of his songs are personal, even the ones that seem impersonal at first glance. He has said in interviews that he uses the literary references to help distance himself from the real life things going into the songs.
Like we all know Francesca is based on Dante's infero characters (that were real people) but it's also about stuff that was happening in his life that he has not elaborated on. (Which I can't say I blame him, I'd keep it to myself as well. But whatever it was is clearly still painful considering he literally almost started crying in that cbs interview).
This album is about a break up but Hozier walks us through it through storytelling his feelings into the narrative of dante's inferno. I really recommend looking up his interviews about Francesca and Unknown. The shortened background is that Francesca is about how Francesca's lover says he'd relive their whole love story all again to end up in the first circle ofhell with her where they are stuck in hurricanes because at least in every life and version of hell he could try and make his way back to her. Unknown is about how betrayal is what puts you in the deepest pits of dante's inferno and he portrays betrayal as that hell - that is this is from the perspective of someone betrayed by who they love most but they still say that the betrayal and pain is worth it because at least they got to look upon the real version of the person they loed for the first time. I recommend listening to Wasteland, Baby! next - I think you'd love it and the concept of it being how love can be a destructive force and exist admist destruction. Also take me to church was written to raise awareness for how gay men were being tortured to death on live streams in Russia, the song follows the relationship between religious trauma and queer love- the music video and the bridge really helps illuminate this.
Francesca is actually told from Francesca's perspective. She has historically been painted as a messy silly woman who couldn't just do the right thing and therefore deserved her place in Hell. Agency was robbed in the telling of her story, but she was a real person. Hozier reframed her story to be like "Absolutely not! I'd do that again. I have no regrets for chasing my love!" Just felt it needed to be said because of the agency Hozier tried to give her in that song.
Hozier’s albums make me simultaneously want to sink into and be swallowed up by the soundscapes, while also wanting to soar out of my body and float away. It’s such a unique feeling. Thank you for this wonderful video.
You should definitely listen to his other albums! His self titled is his first album, and has more themes of death as well as religion. His second album, Wasteland, Baby! is my favorite album from him, and deals more with the end of the world inspired from the works of T.S. Elliot.
Also you mentioned how dark eat your young is and that’s actually one of my favourite parts of his music. I love how he doesn’t shy away from being quite visceral in some songs. He has an entire song about two lovers rotting together in a field (in a week) and it’s so beautiful. It just kinda makes his music feel more real if that makes sense. Not shying away from topics like actuality of death and serious political issues is so appealing. You don’t see that a lot in popular music I think. In general his songs just feel like he’s being very legitimate in his music. I rarely find songs that discuss love in a way I feel comes close to the actual feeling but he manages to do so over and over again. I just love him so much
oh my god abstract is absolutely one of the greatest things he's ever done imo. idk why but it moves me so much he killed it with this album. Comparing his memory of watching an animal get ran over in the road, and like, the rawness of love someone has for their pet, letting go of this relationship, unbelievable.
It’s not even that he’s underrated, it’s that he’s THE artist of this generation: as a musician, as a lyricist, as poet, as a producer, as a storyteller, as a SINGER. This album is genuinely a masterpiece and the fact that it’s inspired on Dante’s inferno makes it even much more of a achievement. I feel unbelievably lucky to witness his work and to be able to be inspired by it.
butchered tongue just hits so hard for me as not only a black woman but one with a Jamaican father and African American mother. My ancestors went through hell and all they had was each other so they built up new culture and shared it amongst one another and even when they were cut down for it they still shared it from beyond the grave.
I was already getting emotional with the album but butchered tongue DESTROYED me... i don't think I can listen to that song without crying. He mentions how grateful and blessed he is of being able to still talk his native tongue however butchered it is, and he recognizes that not all have such luck, and that really hit me hard. I come from a place where our natives where completely destroyed by colonization, and all we have are words, there's an indescribable pain that comes with feeling a deep connection with your roots but never being able to connect fully because you know the language is simply extinct... that shit just broke me dude.
I'm not Native but from a country where we destroyed cultures and languages (canada) and Butchered tounge made me sob just thinking about what we did to our indigenous people and I can't imagine how much more it hits people who have a personal connection to their languages that got taken alway (or almost taken) . A masterpiece of music and just art that can make people feel things they've never experienced.
Butchered Tongue consistently murders me every time I listen to it, it's almost too beautiful. I care so much about language, and history, and stories and people, and I've never had a song so elegantly put to words exactly how I feel about it before. How we're intrinsically connected to our pasts, and the words that people used back then. The histories that other people burned, that we'll never get back. The way that not just in Ireland, but native people in so many places in the world have been butchered along with their even their languages. Beautiful. Truly gorgeous. This album is a new favorite for me. Top 5 is "Butchered Tongue", "Abstract (Psychopomp)", "I, Carrion (Icarian)", "Unknown / Nth", and "First Light". I'm also gonna include "To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uiscefhuaraithe)" because I can't limit my favorites to just five.
its a topic I hadnt really come across especially in music and the way he expressed his story and feelings through the song I just got the pain straight away it was beautiful
This video autoplayed after an interview with Hozier and I let it play solely for the joy of watching someone with next to no knowledge of his body of work completely fall in love with his voice and lyricism in real time. It was absolutely beautiful to see. Welcome to the fold. 🖤
It’s so beautiful to listen to someone who actually fully appreciates his absolute mastery of both lyricism and music production. He puts so much attention to his words and music and layering of themes, that the more you learn about him/the songs, the more you get out of them. Please listen to all of his albums now, he really is a modern day poet of a musician and deserves all our utmost respect and id love to hear your take on all of them.
Butchered tongue hit me in my core as a first generation immigrant to the US. I was born in Burma to a minority called the Chin people (Tedim, to be specific) and Burma has been in a coup since 2021 (and many other coups before that). Trying to retain my native tongue, resist assimilation, and fight as much as I can from afar…this song touched my soul
Concept albums are my favorite and UU is probably my new all time favorite. We are literally traveling through the nine circles of Hell (Dante's Inferno) with De Selby pt.1 and 2 being the descent into it and First Light the ascent at the end of the journey. With the beautiful lyrics this is a 10/10 for me. Anyway my five favorites : 1. De Selby pt.1 2. First Light 3. De Selby pt.2 4. Francesca 5. Abstract
I was so in love with this album upon first listen, as soon as it came out, but hearing you react and the things you had to say about it, and the beautiful little aspects you highlighted that I hadn't even picked up on, made me fall in love with it all over again! Hozier is truly an incredible artist. His musicianship, his vocals, and his deep poetic ability, just insane. Every one of his albums I love and I was shocked how this one instantly took first place for me.
Picking favorites of Hoziers work is impossible. Every song is crafted with so much care and weight that it feels insulting to leave any by the wayside. Hozier is truly an artist in the most pure and complete way. I've never seen an artist like him before.
The imagery in Abstract (Psychopomp) gets me every time, its so beautiful. Like the use of 'psychopomp', a being that guides souls to the underworld, to describe his partner in this memory where they rushed to comfort this animal as i died, without a second thought so that it wouldnt die scared and alone, like their natural instinct is to just run to its aid without even thinking of their own safety running into a road full of cars; And how that was the moment he knew he had no choice but to love them seeing how absolutely pure and selfless they are and how thats just like a perfect window into who they are as a person and not an act . AAAAAAghhhh
For me is it is: 1) Francesca 2) abstract 3)/4) De Selby (part 1 &2) 5) all things end. But damn this list is different each time I'm listening. Abstract gets me to tears a bit too much 😅 I've been in a situation where there was a little bird (sparrow) that just flew into the wheels of my bike while getting to school. It was dying so slowly and I was just crying and panicking trying to call the "animal ambulance" but they told me they couldn't do anything. So I just had to hold it while it's guts where out and it was dying slowly. I still cry thinking about it. I feel guilty, but it was a complete accident.
Hozier just can't make a bad album and song.... He just can't!! Wasteland baby! is one my favourite albums as well (his 1st album was incredible as well!) and this one is absolutely amazing as well!! I love him so much as an artist and I have the impression that he is a great person/guy as well!!
Let me just say-it’s always SO refreshing when someone really truly understands what an artist is trying to say with their lyrics. You’re doing great!!
Anything But is a really cheeky cutting metaphor. He’s upset with someone and would rather be anywhere but in their presence, with nothing left to give them. “If I was a riptide I wouldn’t take you out”, “if I was a stampede, you wouldn’t get a kick”. Our boy Andrew really gave up on them.
I haven't spent a lot of time with the back half of this album and experiencing it with you has me BROKEN. It's chills all over for 20 minutes. This album is so healing after the devastating last few years. We need MORE of this, more acceptance and rebirth.
i think "you called me angel for the first time my heart leapt from me / you smile now, i can see its pieces still stuck in your teeth / and whats left of it i listen to it tick / every tedious beat" has to be one of the most beautiful lyrics ive ever heard. right there along side the first verse of 'talk' about orpheus and eurydice
To note: You mention 70s vibes for First Time. Andrew has said how much of an influence Van Morrison is for him as a musician and you can ABSOLUTELY hear that in his music. He's covered Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing" and its stellar. You'll hear that in Anything But as well.
Welcome to the magic of Hozier!! Absolutely loved your reaction! I usually listen to heavier music, but Hozier will forever be that artist that is just so damn special. The way he writes the music and the lyrics seems like he puts a bit of himself into every bit of it. He's the one who inspires me so damn much, his music just feeds my soul, it just heals me from within. Cannot explain it haha. I', very excited for you to check out his other albums!! This man legit doesn't have a single bad song.
if you have the time for it, definitely listen to his other two albums! wasteland baby is similar to this one in that it has more variety with genre and musical experimentation. his first one is a bit more raw and intimate, and is always going to be my first love. and i promise, sitting down and really listening to take me to church will make it feel like a completely new song 😂 and if you want to just enjoy the beauty of his voice, look up his performance of “the humours of whiskey” and cover for “cosmic love”. both videos are really short but pack a punch to the ears
You express your thoughts about each song so well/quickly! I felt very similar about many of these songs but couldn't quite articulate those feelings, ty so much for this!
I, Carrion never fails to make me sob my eyes out. he’s the most perfect story teller ever and i really just love hozier with my entire being. thank you for reviewing this perfect album 🫶
First time on your channel and I wanted to comment and say that I really enjoyed your depth and thoughtfulness on each track. I really enjoyed this reaction! Thank you.
Loved your reaction! 🥰 For me Butchered Tongue is number one for sure. Being from a country where our native language suffered a fate similar to that of Gaelic, this song really resonates. Thinking that it was somewhat shameful to speak my language and express my culture when I was a child and seeing a shift now, where people my age slowly understand that it, in fact, isn't... "A butchered tongue still singin' here above the ground" line made me burst into tears. Overall top 5: 1. Butchered Tongue 2. De Selby Pt. 1 3. Son of Nyx 4. Francesca 5. I, Carrion But also it's really difficult to rank Eat Your Young and All Thing End, cause I've got so used to them by now, they kinda stand on their own. 😅
Thank you for a full album reaction😊 Hozier is a brilliant lyricist, isn't he. If you dive deeper into his music, please know that some tracks he released are not on his albums, specifically NFWMB and A Moment's silence which were included in the ep before Wasteland! Baby ,his 2nd and my favorite album🥰
What an intro to the majesty that is Hozier’s body of work!!! Having been standing in awe of his lyrical/musical/vocal prowess for a good decade, I cannot imagine experiencing this masterpiece in one go basically as a first listen to him. Your reaction was amazing. I’m so glad it touched you as powerfully as it did the rest of us. :) I cannot get through a few of these songs without crying, which is usually a good indicator for how high they rank individually haha. My CURRENT top 5: 1) Abstract (Psychopomp) 2) Unknown/Nth 3) Who We Are 4) De Selby (Part 1) 5) To Someone From a Warm Climate (Uiscefhuarithe) Thanks for reacting to this album! It’s been living in my head rent free since the singles started dropping. Definitely subscribing, can’t wait for you to get to his other works. :D
Loved your insights! This album was really all I hoped for and more. Absolutely recommend you listen to Through Me (The Flood) as well, it was on the Eat Your Young EP but not the actual album and it's an absolute favourite of mine. This album specifically is stacked with allusions to Inferno, the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, and the 9 circles of hell. Eat Your Young references Swifts' 'A Modest Proposal', a satire piece about the mistreatment of the Irish by the English.
Please listen to the live performance of Nina cries power with mavis staple. It is an absolute absolute masterpiece and I think you’d enjoy seeing them play all together. Also i know it’s technically not on there but Through Me (The Flood) is sooo good and you should def listen to that. Hozier has said that there’s some lyrics in that one that he’s particularly proud of.
I never comment on videos but this was one of the most amazing album reaction videos I have ever watched. Hozier is one of my top 3 favorite artists and I think you now know why! You should react to his first and second albums as well, especially the second one. My favorite song is from his 2nd album and its called "Shrike". I feel like you would love that song and really connect with it. Thank you:))
wow thank you so much!!! :))))) im so excited to do his earlier albums my reaction to his first is already up on Patreon and be on YT soon hopefully! :) www.patreon.com/luscent
My favourites are probably 5. Through Me (The Flood) (the lyricism just makes me feel so. much.) 4. Butchered Tongue (such a beautiful song, the way he captures the topic is so moving) 3. Francesca (as a literature student I am legally obligated to love this, also saw this one live and it was divine) 2. Eat Your Young (again, literature student but also HBOs Hannibal is my favourite show, also just an objectively wildly good song, soo catchy) 1. I Carrion (I can’t really put it into words but this makes me immediately think of the people I love the most, sounds cheesy but this song just feels like pure love to me) Also I think Unknown (Nth) is about the relationship of Lucifer and God from the perspective of Lucifer who can’t stop loving God even after his fall. Not 100% sure tho
You should definitely listen to more of Hozier's music, he's a literal genius. My top 5 from UU at the moment are: 1. Unknown/nth 2. Francesca 3. First time 4. Damage gets done 5. De Selby (both 1 an 2 I can't chose ok) Honorable mention to Through me (The flood) which didn't make it to the album but is probably one of my favourite Hozier songs.
He’s an artist just like the legends in the eighteenth century cuz he always make sure the meaning of songs are actually related and details are on point he’s just perfect 😍 we love Hozier ❤
I really enjoyed hearing your reaction and thoughts! I think you would love the deeper meaning of the songs and how they relate to Dante’s inferno. Francesca is one of my favorite tracks on the album and it has a beautiful literary backstory.
I just discovered your channel and I love how you talk about music!!! Just the way you find connections between what's happening sonically and what's happening lyrically is so fascinating and really adds to my understanding of the music. And you gleaned so much from the songs without any background info which I think is a testament to your analytical skills as well as Hozier's ability to communicate his message. I hope you react to more Hozier! This album is an absolute triumph and very thematically cohesive, but his other two full length albums are as poetic and thoughtfully rendered. I would love to hear your thoughts about them!
I, Carrion is about Icarus, but told through a different imagining of the story. Hozier talks about it when he introduces the song, there’s some videos of him explaining it but basically it’s imagining Icarus’s fall as being such a lovely experience that he can’t believe he’s died when he eventually hits the sea, and him being in denial about being dead. Comparing it to being in love is such a beautiful idea, this song is one of my favorites and it rips my heart out every time
Really intelligent and insightful analysis! I've seen a few interviews of him discussing the themes for these songs and for a lot of them you've been spot on! Really impressive!
dan!!! i'm SO excited to see you reacting to hozier!!! him and taylor swift are my top 2 artists of all time and i love your taylor reactions so i really hope you continue diving into hozier's discography!! your reaction and breakdown were amazing, you are so perceptive when analyzing lyrics. i always love hearing your thoughts 💗 this will probably change as i listen to the album more but my favourite song rn is francesca. its such a beautiful retelling/interpretation of francesca and paolo's story from dante's inferno. like two people who are condemned to hell for the sin of loving each other, but saying they would do it all over again if they got to spend another minute together?? 😭😭 i get goosebumps every time
Top 5 songs on this album for me are First Light, De Selby 1, De Selby 2, Francesca, and Damage Gets Done. What a phenomenal album. Better get nominated for some Grammys. And having the album go along with and be inspired by Dante's Inferno, beautifully done!
Glad you got to hear these gorgeous songs. Over Covid, apparently his mom had stopped by his house and left flowers without him knowing, and he came in to the kitchen and saw them and that moment really struck him, she painted the covers of his first ep and two albums too! Instead of pictures or digital art, those are oil paintings for his self titled and for Wasteland, Baby!! There’s a video somewhere where they did a photo shoot for wasteland baby and then she painted the cover based off of it! Not sure if she did the Unreal Unearth cover too
Dan you have such a beautiful ability to feel emotions so purely, it's just so amazing to watch. Thank you for this reaction and your interpretations, they really help inform my own. ❤️
FAVORITE… Wasteland Baby! Check out his interviews- Francesca is an extrapolation from another story. His mom is still alive, and an artist. Love you discovering Hozier ❤❤ Thank you for giving me a new level of interpretation ‼️
Watching you experience this for the first time is giving me so much joy. Hozier puts out such beautiful, moving albums. All things end is my favorite.
im sure someone has already mentioned it, but Hozier started in an interview that the album takes heavy influence from Dante’s Inferno, even having songs grouped on the vinyl under each circle of hell. I loved seeing the lyrics from your perspective though, just shows the endless layers of depth hidden in the songs ❤
What an incredibly connected, heartfelt, observant and thoughtful reaction. I loved revisiting this album through your eyes, it made a lot of the themes and references in the lyrics click for me in a way I didn't pick up on in my own first listen. Just a really spot-on analysis and commentary, amazing
“Anything But” is a really interesting song in the sense that it can be interpreted in a few ways. You picked up on the speaker loving someone so much they ‘wouldn’t get a kick’ if he were a stampede or ‘a riptide wouldn’t take them out’ but the actual meaning is that he doesn’t want anything to do with them. Such as when he says ‘if I had deaths job, you would live forever’, almost like a little joke.
My favourites are Francesca, First Time, Abstract, I Carrion and First Light - in no particular order I love them all. Tbf each time I listen to it I find a new favourite
I have seen Hozier in concert twice. When you think he sounds good on record, he blows you away. He sounds BETTER live than on recordings and his published songs. It's raw, beautiful, impressive, and the best voice I have ever heard live. He doesn't edit his voice in any way when recording.
The last part of Unknow always stunning me, because that last sound that it can be hear is the same that a vinil disc make when you finish one face, when the spike reach the end of the face. So, to me, he add that sound to the end of the song to mark that everything that comes later is the beginning of another history, of a new chapter in his life.
my top 5: 1. to someone from a warm climate 2. abstract 3. i, carrion 4. who we are 5. first light i was SOBBING the first time i heard the album, and trying to keep it quiet cause my husband was sleeping right next to me. i felt so spiritually fed by this album and it resonates so closely in a way i cant describe. im so excited to see him in concert in october 😭
I second this emotion! First listen really did bring me to tears. Can't wait for Sept 29 concert. Just wish he would do the whole album live. That would be worth another tour just for all the songs. I really see this album as a great concept and meant to listen to it in whole!
I actually think Unknown/Nth is the only song where he wishes he's never known the lover. It's like they betrayed the singer, and he's saying, "I thought we knew each other, but you never understood me, really." the lyrics "That I'd walk so far just to take/The injury of finally knowing you" and "There are some people, love, who are better unknown" Make me think this way
it was truly an experience. i've only known take me to church and blood upon the snow, but this was my doorway into the full world of hozier. It felt so nice, and emotional listening to this while driving down the country roads while the golden hour sun was shining on me.
I can’t wait for you to figure out the Dante’s inferno, third policeman, and a modest proposal references because the lyrics get even deeper (and eat your young makes way more sense lol) PLEASE listen to his other albums. He is an unparalleled lyricist
All of the songs in this album is so personal to me, specially Francesca, unknown, first time and butchered tongue( cause they tried to butchered my mother tongue as well and some how they were successful) The album is based on Dante’s inferno and some references is are in this book ( for example Francesca) I love hozier, his songs, his voice and his performance. He is a gem in this dark and cruel world.
loved your reaction!! it's hard to find someone who really dives into the lyrics and origins of the songs and gives honest and raw opinions about them these days. keep up the good work! subscribed :))
thank you!! it seems like a lot of creators are all flocking towards the tiktok style shallow but high engagement stuff so im glad you appreciate my slightly deeper style :)
Top 5 you ask? well well well... 1.) To someone from a warm climate (wow) 2.) First light (wow) 3.)Damage get's done (brandi carlile favs) 4.) Unknown/ nth 5.)Eat your young the two wows are interchangeable
Saw him on Tuesday, and he mentioned the flowers were left in his house whilst he was gone and they were the only thing that occupied his house when he came back if I'm not mistaken. And most of these songs were written over lockdown (also his mum was at the concert)
This album makes me feel all the emotions. Particularly Francesca, Abstract (Polychomp), To Someone from a Warm a Climate, and Through me (The flood). To me, this album says everything I've been feeling for the past two years since my first love died by drowning. It brings back so many memories and emotions and I'm so greatful for Andrew.
In Butchered Tongue, not only is he talking about the tragedy of Irish history but he's connecting with a broader indigenous experience. Hushpukena and Appalachicola are towns in Michigan and Florida that retain names from indigenous languages. Hozier talked about speaking to people from those places and asking what the names meant and having no one know.
Man, yeah, I have so much I could say about every song here. Hozier albums always send me down research spirals and I end up learning about history and poetry and music from all the references he makes, lol. You can analyze them for hours and keep finding new depth. I'm really enjoying your reaction here and especially your comments on production (which I know nothing about).
Your reaction is so beautiful, I love Hozier! As a listener you could enjoy it on a surface level, but theres so much layers to the songs, like Eat Young Young is an allegory to the military industrial complex and how the people in positions of power uses the working class to enrich themselves and yet it sounds so sexy
In case anyone’s wondering what De Selby means, someone made a really good comment explaining it on the lyric video to De Selby (part 2). Basically though De Selby is a character created by Flann O’Brien who is known for their philosophical beliefs.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who can be brought to tears with his voice alone, like he could be singing in a language I don't understand in the slightest, and the way his voice rings out in some lines, I just can't help it
Your reactions are my favourite! Thank you for your emotional vulnerability. Love from Finland 🇫🇮 You actually hear the music and lyrics, not just listen
'Who We Are' has got to be my all time favourite of his- something about it really reaches to my soul. However, I would eat up anything he produces lol, he can do no wrong.
It was such an emotional ride listening to this album for the first time and I had a great time going on that journey again with your reaction to it. Just signed up for the patreon so I can watch the uncut version. Loved hearing you talk about the lyrics. I would be super keen to see you react to his other albums.
I would love to see you react to his other albums! You should really start with his self titled then move onto Wasteland, Baby! I know what you mean about being scared to touch take me to church but I think an in depth dive into the song will surprise you!
it's really interesting to see how you interpret the songs without the context of dantes inferno - it makes for some really insightful and beautiful observations xx personally, i LOVED this album, i adored all the songs, but my favorites are: 1. First Light 2. Butchered Tongue 3. Son of Nyx, 4. How the Damage Gets Done (controversial i know) 5. Francesca much love x
Thanks for all the love on this video!!! 🥰🥰 if you wanna watch the version with no cuts in the songs and analysis its on Patreon :) www.patreon.com/luscent
son of nyx is actually a piece of alex, his bassist which he wrote in memory of his dead father (nick) that’s why it’s called son of nyx. it also functions as a track to transfer us to the darker side of the album, quite literally crossing the river styx. it’s an amazing piece
ohh wowwwwww that is incredibly deep and works even with the Icarus reference too
Francesca has so much meaning and is actually one of my favorites on the album! it's inspired by a couple in 14-century italy, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Francesca was married off in a political marriage to a man much older than her, Giovanni. instead, she falls in love with Paolo, who is Giovanni's younger brother. they have an affair, but when Giovanni finds out, he murders both of them. in Dante's "Inferno," Francesca and Paolo are in the 2nd circle of Hell, Lust, where their punishment is to be tossed around in a hurricane for eternity, and Hozier mentions it representing them being "swept off their feet" and their love for each other being so strong. Dante says that their two "shades," or souls, were so closely intertwined that they could be seen as one. that's basically what the song is about/inspired by and literally almost makes me cry every time, especially the lyric "heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i" in the outro.
Beautiful ❤️ I adore this song too ☺️
I Loved the references to the Devine comedy, I picked it up as soon as I heard the song, Although I thought the part where he says "I'll tell them put me back in" for a minute I thought it might be about Dante himself going through hell again for Beatrice. But thank you for your explanation.
God it's deep 😆
For me, Butchered Tongue just hits me so much deeper after hearing him speak Gaelic throughout which is something he hasn't done in past albums and it's just so so beautiful and haunting
yes yes yes he threads the story so well its amazing
Irish is a beautiful language I am so glad he sings in it more often.
I´ve heard this album described as "everyone gets emotionally destroyed by three of the songs, but never the same three" and honestly true
I struggle listening to Butchered Tongue without crying, as an indigenous person constantly seeing roadsigns with names given by our ancestors getting spray painted over or just vandalized in general the song means so much to me. The place names here were given to describe the land, describing lakes and mountains and it was all named with a purpose. There are so few people that know what those names mean, where they come from because "it just means home to them". My familys/ancestors language has already gone extinct like so many other indigenous languages and god the song is so incredibly important and absolutely hearbreaking.
In my country the language spoken by a lot of the indigenous people from this part of the world is an official language, it's called guaraní, it's taught in schools as part of the curriculum in every school of the country and everyone can at least understand it but young people won't speak it because they find it ugly and it's sad. And sadly indigenous people are mistreated a lot.
It makes me WEEP that I don't speak Irish, like my language was robbed from me
The line about a butchered tongue still being spoken above the ground...my goodness
stop i’m irish and i WAS SOBBING 😭😭 i do speak it but i’m the only one in my family who does 💔💔
The whole song is about the voicelessness of the colonised. As an Irish-speaker, the whole song murdered me.
Loving Ireland as I do (hi from Argentina), its history, its culture, its people, their strength and everything they had gone through, Butchered Tongue shattered my heart.
This song is brutally heartbreaking. I cant listen without sobbing. Pitchcapping is the most horrific form of torture.
@GrainneMhaol The fact that he compared it to towns in the USA named after dead languages of the native Americans that no longer have meaning and are no longer understood, and can no longer be translated, so the town name means nothing more than "home to them" was beautiful because it showed that despite the attempted destruction of the people and the language of Ireland, it still lives, is used and is understood. Absolutely beautiful.
I was NOT prepared for this album. Abstract (Psychopomp) in particular got me good. The imagery of holding roadkill in the street having hit it, the tears running down your face shining in the light. God. This man could do no wrong.
same!!! the comparison of a dying relationship and a dying animal in the road oh my god
SAME 😭 ITS SO GOOD AND SO PAINFUL
I cry every time I listen to it
I cannot listen to Abstract without breaking into tears. Even when I swear I won't. I do. I saw him live recently, and I cannot describe what it did to me. It's terribly sad, but still uplifting... I can't. ..
I read the lyrics and it gutted me 😢
Eat your young is actually a reference to a essay from 1729 (A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift) that says that a solution to poverty in Ireland would be that poor people sold their children for the rich to eat.
Haha, yeah.. it was a piss take at they english at they time .. because of all they bad treatment they gave to they irish .... after all Jonathan swift was irish
Your raw reaction to Hozier's music is really interesting and emotional. Your response to Butchered Tongue is right on the money. As an Irish person and speaker of Irish, I found this song so heartbreaking. Not all of this songs are personal though, may of his references are literary, like Francesca which is based on a love story in Dante's Inferno. Eat Your Young takes inspiration from Swift's A Modest Proposal, and satirically suggests that the war-mongers and capitalist skip the destruction of their children's future and just eat them instead. I love this album beyond all reason.
glad you enjoyed the vid this album was just so moving and on a few more listens Im already obsessed
Eat your young gave me the same vibes as American teenager by Ethel Cain where, at first sight, it's kind of a poppy song, but in reality it narrates the greed of our leaders and the cost it comes with
Butchered tongue honestly absolutely kills me. I’m about 50% Native American, but despite that I’ve never learned anything about the culture and I even have a not-so-distant relative that was so racist against natives that he erased all of our connection to the tribe we were from. This is an absolutely beautiful nod to other colonized cultures while it pays respects to the Irish people that were killed by the British.
All of his songs are personal, even the ones that seem impersonal at first glance. He has said in interviews that he uses the literary references to help distance himself from the real life things going into the songs.
Like we all know Francesca is based on Dante's infero characters (that were real people) but it's also about stuff that was happening in his life that he has not elaborated on. (Which I can't say I blame him, I'd keep it to myself as well. But whatever it was is clearly still painful considering he literally almost started crying in that cbs interview).
This album is about a break up but Hozier walks us through it through storytelling his feelings into the narrative of dante's inferno. I really recommend looking up his interviews about Francesca and Unknown. The shortened background is that Francesca is about how Francesca's lover says he'd relive their whole love story all again to end up in the first circle ofhell with her where they are stuck in hurricanes because at least in every life and version of hell he could try and make his way back to her. Unknown is about how betrayal is what puts you in the deepest pits of dante's inferno and he portrays betrayal as that hell - that is this is from the perspective of someone betrayed by who they love most but they still say that the betrayal and pain is worth it because at least they got to look upon the real version of the person they loed for the first time. I recommend listening to Wasteland, Baby! next - I think you'd love it and the concept of it being how love can be a destructive force and exist admist destruction. Also take me to church was written to raise awareness for how gay men were being tortured to death on live streams in Russia, the song follows the relationship between religious trauma and queer love- the music video and the bridge really helps illuminate this.
Francesca is actually told from Francesca's perspective. She has historically been painted as a messy silly woman who couldn't just do the right thing and therefore deserved her place in Hell. Agency was robbed in the telling of her story, but she was a real person. Hozier reframed her story to be like "Absolutely not! I'd do that again. I have no regrets for chasing my love!"
Just felt it needed to be said because of the agency Hozier tried to give her in that song.
It was driving me crazy that he didn’t have the context to Francesca 😭😭 the whole Dante part of the album is amazing
oh shiiiiiiiit wow ok cant wait to do the earlier stuff!!
This album was written about the 9 gates of hell from the inferno. A relationship takes you there. Lol
Ptolomea by Ethel Cain is all I'm gonna say
Hozier’s albums make me simultaneously want to sink into and be swallowed up by the soundscapes, while also wanting to soar out of my body and float away. It’s such a unique feeling. Thank you for this wonderful video.
Beautiful! and thank you for watching!!
You should definitely listen to his other albums! His self titled is his first album, and has more themes of death as well as religion. His second album, Wasteland, Baby! is my favorite album from him, and deals more with the end of the world inspired from the works of T.S. Elliot.
Seconded! The first two albums are so beautiful in different ways from this album.
yeah defo gonna react to both so look out!! :)
@@Luscent his first album has some of the best, most romantic songs I've heard, still hold them close to this day
hey hey hey my reaction to his first album is already up on Patreon and be on YT soon hopefully! :) www.patreon.com/luscent
@@Luscent Are you going to react to Wasteland, Baby!
Also you mentioned how dark eat your young is and that’s actually one of my favourite parts of his music. I love how he doesn’t shy away from being quite visceral in some songs. He has an entire song about two lovers rotting together in a field (in a week) and it’s so beautiful. It just kinda makes his music feel more real if that makes sense. Not shying away from topics like actuality of death and serious political issues is so appealing. You don’t see that a lot in popular music I think. In general his songs just feel like he’s being very legitimate in his music. I rarely find songs that discuss love in a way I feel comes close to the actual feeling but he manages to do so over and over again. I just love him so much
wow i cant wait to hear the field one that actually sounds so romantic haha
@@Luscentit's called "In a Week" and i think Brandi was featured in it too... and yes it was somehow a very romantic song 😂
oh my god abstract is absolutely one of the greatest things he's ever done imo. idk why but it moves me so much he killed it with this album. Comparing his memory of watching an animal get ran over in the road, and like, the rawness of love someone has for their pet, letting go of this relationship, unbelievable.
insanely beautiful
It’s not even that he’s underrated, it’s that he’s THE artist of this generation: as a musician, as a lyricist, as poet, as a producer, as a storyteller, as a SINGER. This album is genuinely a masterpiece and the fact that it’s inspired on Dante’s inferno makes it even much more of a achievement. I feel unbelievably lucky to witness his work and to be able to be inspired by it.
👏👏👏 I can't wait to do his earlier stuff!
This album is utter perfection ❤
butchered tongue just hits so hard for me as not only a black woman but one with a Jamaican father and African American mother. My ancestors went through hell and all they had was each other so they built up new culture and shared it amongst one another and even when they were cut down for it they still shared it from beyond the grave.
I was already getting emotional with the album but butchered tongue DESTROYED me... i don't think I can listen to that song without crying. He mentions how grateful and blessed he is of being able to still talk his native tongue however butchered it is, and he recognizes that not all have such luck, and that really hit me hard. I come from a place where our natives where completely destroyed by colonization, and all we have are words, there's an indescribable pain that comes with feeling a deep connection with your roots but never being able to connect fully because you know the language is simply extinct... that shit just broke me dude.
I'm not Native but from a country where we destroyed cultures and languages (canada) and Butchered tounge made me sob just thinking about what we did to our indigenous people and I can't imagine how much more it hits people who have a personal connection to their languages that got taken alway (or almost taken) . A masterpiece of music and just art that can make people feel things they've never experienced.
Butchered Tongue consistently murders me every time I listen to it, it's almost too beautiful. I care so much about language, and history, and stories and people, and I've never had a song so elegantly put to words exactly how I feel about it before. How we're intrinsically connected to our pasts, and the words that people used back then. The histories that other people burned, that we'll never get back. The way that not just in Ireland, but native people in so many places in the world have been butchered along with their even their languages. Beautiful.
Truly gorgeous. This album is a new favorite for me.
Top 5 is "Butchered Tongue", "Abstract (Psychopomp)", "I, Carrion (Icarian)", "Unknown / Nth", and "First Light". I'm also gonna include "To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uiscefhuaraithe)" because I can't limit my favorites to just five.
its a topic I hadnt really come across especially in music and the way he expressed his story and feelings through the song I just got the pain straight away it was beautiful
This video autoplayed after an interview with Hozier and I let it play solely for the joy of watching someone with next to no knowledge of his body of work completely fall in love with his voice and lyricism in real time. It was absolutely beautiful to see. Welcome to the fold. 🖤
It’s so beautiful to listen to someone who actually fully appreciates his absolute mastery of both lyricism and music production. He puts so much attention to his words and music and layering of themes, that the more you learn about him/the songs, the more you get out of them. Please listen to all of his albums now, he really is a modern day poet of a musician and deserves all our utmost respect and id love to hear your take on all of them.
Butchered tongue hit me in my core as a first generation immigrant to the US. I was born in Burma to a minority called the Chin people (Tedim, to be specific) and Burma has been in a coup since 2021 (and many other coups before that). Trying to retain my native tongue, resist assimilation, and fight as much as I can from afar…this song touched my soul
incredible and thank you for sharing :)
❤️
Concept albums are my favorite and UU is probably my new all time favorite. We are literally traveling through the nine circles of Hell (Dante's Inferno) with De Selby pt.1 and 2 being the descent into it and First Light the ascent at the end of the journey. With the beautiful lyrics this is a 10/10 for me.
Anyway my five favorites :
1. De Selby pt.1
2. First Light
3. De Selby pt.2
4. Francesca
5. Abstract
i think knowing the backstory is gonna unlock an extra level for me im excited to get to know it!
love going through the emotional journey ofthis album with someone else it's SO gorgeous
🥰🥰🥰
I was so in love with this album upon first listen, as soon as it came out, but hearing you react and the things you had to say about it, and the beautiful little aspects you highlighted that I hadn't even picked up on, made me fall in love with it all over again! Hozier is truly an incredible artist. His musicianship, his vocals, and his deep poetic ability, just insane. Every one of his albums I love and I was shocked how this one instantly took first place for me.
its really a masterpiece and im glad the vid added something extra for you!!
Picking favorites of Hoziers work is impossible. Every song is crafted with so much care and weight that it feels insulting to leave any by the wayside. Hozier is truly an artist in the most pure and complete way. I've never seen an artist like him before.
The imagery in Abstract (Psychopomp) gets me every time, its so beautiful. Like the use of 'psychopomp', a being that guides souls to the underworld, to describe his partner in this memory where they rushed to comfort this animal as i died, without a second thought so that it wouldnt die scared and alone, like their natural instinct is to just run to its aid without even thinking of their own safety running into a road full of cars; And how that was the moment he knew he had no choice but to love them seeing how absolutely pure and selfless they are and how thats just like a perfect window into who they are as a person and not an act . AAAAAAghhhh
My Top 5 would have to be
1. I, Carrion
2. Unknown
3. Francesca
4. Abstract
5. Who We Are
For me is it is:
1) Francesca
2) abstract
3)/4) De Selby (part 1 &2)
5) all things end.
But damn this list is different each time I'm listening.
Abstract gets me to tears a bit too much 😅 I've been in a situation where there was a little bird (sparrow) that just flew into the wheels of my bike while getting to school. It was dying so slowly and I was just crying and panicking trying to call the "animal ambulance" but they told me they couldn't do anything. So I just had to hold it while it's guts where out and it was dying slowly. I still cry thinking about it. I feel guilty, but it was a complete accident.
Top five for me: 1. Unknown / Nth 2. First Light 3. All Things End 4. Damage Gets Done 5. To Someone from a Warm Climate
My top 5:
1. Who We Are
2. Damage Gets Done
3. Eat Your Young
4. First Time
5. All Things End
Wasteland baby! is maybe one of my favourite albums of all time....truly just melodically and lyrically spectacular.
cant wait!!
Hozier just can't make a bad album and song.... He just can't!! Wasteland baby! is one my favourite albums as well (his 1st album was incredible as well!) and this one is absolutely amazing as well!! I love him so much as an artist and I have the impression that he is a great person/guy as well!!
Let me just say-it’s always SO refreshing when someone really truly understands what an artist is trying to say with their lyrics. You’re doing great!!
Anything But is a really cheeky cutting metaphor. He’s upset with someone and would rather be anywhere but in their presence, with nothing left to give them. “If I was a riptide I wouldn’t take you out”, “if I was a stampede, you wouldn’t get a kick”. Our boy Andrew really gave up on them.
I just have to say this was such as absolutely astute, thorough, appreciative exploration of this album. I’m so grateful you gave it such respect. 🙏🏽
I haven't spent a lot of time with the back half of this album and experiencing it with you has me BROKEN. It's chills all over for 20 minutes. This album is so healing after the devastating last few years. We need MORE of this, more acceptance and rebirth.
i think "you called me angel for the first time my heart leapt from me / you smile now, i can see its pieces still stuck in your teeth / and whats left of it i listen to it tick / every tedious beat" has to be one of the most beautiful lyrics ive ever heard. right there along side the first verse of 'talk' about orpheus and eurydice
To note: You mention 70s vibes for First Time. Andrew has said how much of an influence Van Morrison is for him as a musician and you can ABSOLUTELY hear that in his music. He's covered Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing" and its stellar. You'll hear that in Anything But as well.
Welcome to the magic of Hozier!! Absolutely loved your reaction! I usually listen to heavier music, but Hozier will forever be that artist that is just so damn special. The way he writes the music and the lyrics seems like he puts a bit of himself into every bit of it. He's the one who inspires me so damn much, his music just feeds my soul, it just heals me from within. Cannot explain it haha. I', very excited for you to check out his other albums!! This man legit doesn't have a single bad song.
im so excited to do his earlier albums my reaction to his first is already up on Patreon and be on YT soon hopefully! :) www.patreon.com/luscent
Seeing someone experience Hozier's music for the first time is so precious.
if you have the time for it, definitely listen to his other two albums! wasteland baby is similar to this one in that it has more variety with genre and musical experimentation. his first one is a bit more raw and intimate, and is always going to be my first love. and i promise, sitting down and really listening to take me to church will make it feel like a completely new song 😂
and if you want to just enjoy the beauty of his voice, look up his performance of “the humours of whiskey” and cover for “cosmic love”. both videos are really short but pack a punch to the ears
omg he did a Florence cover?!?! I need to hear that omg... and uyes will defo be reacting to the first two albums!
hey my reaction to his first album is up on Patreon and should be on YT soon :) www.patreon.com/luscent
You express your thoughts about each song so well/quickly! I felt very similar about many of these songs but couldn't quite articulate those feelings, ty so much for this!
aw thanks! and thanks for watching!
I had listened to I Carrion previously, but the way he sings it on the album absolutely shatters me.
I, Carrion never fails to make me sob my eyes out. he’s the most perfect story teller ever and i really just love hozier with my entire being. thank you for reviewing this perfect album 🫶
Please!! You need to react to his other albums cause he's a great singer and songwriter. And UU was heavily inspired by Dante's Inferno.
Wasteland, Baby! is so good
@@georgeandfriendsadventures5073 it's amazing!!
im now DEFINITELY gonna react Im obsessed with this album!!!
hey my reaction to his first album is up on Patreon and should be on YT soon :) www.patreon.com/luscent
First time on your channel and I wanted to comment and say that I really enjoyed your depth and thoughtfulness on each track. I really enjoyed this reaction! Thank you.
Loved your reaction! 🥰 For me Butchered Tongue is number one for sure. Being from a country where our native language suffered a fate similar to that of Gaelic, this song really resonates. Thinking that it was somewhat shameful to speak my language and express my culture when I was a child and seeing a shift now, where people my age slowly understand that it, in fact, isn't...
"A butchered tongue still singin' here above the ground" line made me burst into tears.
Overall top 5:
1. Butchered Tongue
2. De Selby Pt. 1
3. Son of Nyx
4. Francesca
5. I, Carrion
But also it's really difficult to rank Eat Your Young and All Thing End, cause I've got so used to them by now, they kinda stand on their own. 😅
My ranking is the EXACT same as yours haha! Taste!
Omg our rankings are almost exactly the same !
Thank you for a full album reaction😊 Hozier is a brilliant lyricist, isn't he. If you dive deeper into his music, please know that some tracks he released are not on his albums, specifically NFWMB and A Moment's silence which were included in the ep before Wasteland! Baby ,his 2nd and my favorite album🥰
What an intro to the majesty that is Hozier’s body of work!!! Having been standing in awe of his lyrical/musical/vocal prowess for a good decade, I cannot imagine experiencing this masterpiece in one go basically as a first listen to him. Your reaction was amazing. I’m so glad it touched you as powerfully as it did the rest of us. :) I cannot get through a few of these songs without crying, which is usually a good indicator for how high they rank individually haha.
My CURRENT top 5:
1) Abstract (Psychopomp)
2) Unknown/Nth
3) Who We Are
4) De Selby (Part 1)
5) To Someone From a Warm Climate (Uiscefhuarithe)
Thanks for reacting to this album! It’s been living in my head rent free since the singles started dropping. Definitely subscribing, can’t wait for you to get to his other works. :D
aww thank you glad you liked the video so much! my reaction to his first is already up on Patreon :) www.patreon.com/luscent
Loved your insights! This album was really all I hoped for and more. Absolutely recommend you listen to Through Me (The Flood) as well, it was on the Eat Your Young EP but not the actual album and it's an absolute favourite of mine.
This album specifically is stacked with allusions to Inferno, the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, and the 9 circles of hell. Eat Your Young references Swifts' 'A Modest Proposal', a satire piece about the mistreatment of the Irish by the English.
Please listen to the live performance of Nina cries power with mavis staple. It is an absolute absolute masterpiece and I think you’d enjoy seeing them play all together.
Also i know it’s technically not on there but Through Me (The Flood) is sooo good and you should def listen to that. Hozier has said that there’s some lyrics in that one that he’s particularly proud of.
I never comment on videos but this was one of the most amazing album reaction videos I have ever watched. Hozier is one of my top 3 favorite artists and I think you now know why! You should react to his first and second albums as well, especially the second one. My favorite song is from his 2nd album and its called "Shrike". I feel like you would love that song and really connect with it. Thank you:))
wow thank you so much!!! :))))) im so excited to do his earlier albums my reaction to his first is already up on Patreon and be on YT soon hopefully! :) www.patreon.com/luscent
My favourites are probably
5. Through Me (The Flood) (the lyricism just makes me feel so. much.)
4. Butchered Tongue (such a beautiful song, the way he captures the topic is so moving)
3. Francesca (as a literature student I am legally obligated to love this, also saw this one live and it was divine)
2. Eat Your Young (again, literature student but also HBOs Hannibal is my favourite show, also just an objectively wildly good song, soo catchy)
1. I Carrion (I can’t really put it into words but this makes me immediately think of the people I love the most, sounds cheesy but this song just feels like pure love to me)
Also I think Unknown (Nth) is about the relationship of Lucifer and God from the perspective of Lucifer who can’t stop loving God even after his fall. Not 100% sure tho
You should definitely listen to more of Hozier's music, he's a literal genius.
My top 5 from UU at the moment are:
1. Unknown/nth
2. Francesca
3. First time
4. Damage gets done
5. De Selby (both 1 an 2 I can't chose ok)
Honorable mention to Through me (The flood) which didn't make it to the album but is probably one of my favourite Hozier songs.
He’s an artist just like the legends in the eighteenth century cuz he always make sure the meaning of songs are actually related and details are on point he’s just perfect 😍 we love Hozier ❤
I really enjoyed hearing your reaction and thoughts! I think you would love the deeper meaning of the songs and how they relate to Dante’s inferno. Francesca is one of my favorite tracks on the album and it has a beautiful literary backstory.
I cry to all his songs. They are poetry set to beautiful music with a powerful angelic voice
I just discovered your channel and I love how you talk about music!!! Just the way you find connections between what's happening sonically and what's happening lyrically is so fascinating and really adds to my understanding of the music. And you gleaned so much from the songs without any background info which I think is a testament to your analytical skills as well as Hozier's ability to communicate his message.
I hope you react to more Hozier! This album is an absolute triumph and very thematically cohesive, but his other two full length albums are as poetic and thoughtfully rendered. I would love to hear your thoughts about them!
Ive been a hozier fan for years and im so happy hes getting more recognition, his music and lyricism is unmatched
I, Carrion is about Icarus, but told through a different imagining of the story. Hozier talks about it when he introduces the song, there’s some videos of him explaining it but basically it’s imagining Icarus’s fall as being such a lovely experience that he can’t believe he’s died when he eventually hits the sea, and him being in denial about being dead. Comparing it to being in love is such a beautiful idea, this song is one of my favorites and it rips my heart out every time
My top 5:
1. De Selby (Part 1)
2. De Selby (Part 2)
3. Son of Nyx
4. Butchered Tongue
5. Unknown / Nth
(It was so hard to pick)
Really intelligent and insightful analysis! I've seen a few interviews of him discussing the themes for these songs and for a lot of them you've been spot on! Really impressive!
dan!!! i'm SO excited to see you reacting to hozier!!! him and taylor swift are my top 2 artists of all time and i love your taylor reactions so i really hope you continue diving into hozier's discography!! your reaction and breakdown were amazing, you are so perceptive when analyzing lyrics. i always love hearing your thoughts 💗
this will probably change as i listen to the album more but my favourite song rn is francesca. its such a beautiful retelling/interpretation of francesca and paolo's story from dante's inferno. like two people who are condemned to hell for the sin of loving each other, but saying they would do it all over again if they got to spend another minute together?? 😭😭 i get goosebumps every time
Top 5 songs on this album for me are First Light, De Selby 1, De Selby 2, Francesca, and Damage Gets Done. What a phenomenal album. Better get nominated for some Grammys. And having the album go along with and be inspired by Dante's Inferno, beautifully done!
This album deserves a AOTY mom.
Glad you got to hear these gorgeous songs. Over Covid, apparently his mom had stopped by his house and left flowers without him knowing, and he came in to the kitchen and saw them and that moment really struck him, she painted the covers of his first ep and two albums too! Instead of pictures or digital art, those are oil paintings for his self titled and for Wasteland, Baby!! There’s a video somewhere where they did a photo shoot for wasteland baby and then she painted the cover based off of it! Not sure if she did the Unreal Unearth cover too
Oh beautiful!! ❤️❤️❤️
This is the first album cover his mom didn’t do
Dan you have such a beautiful ability to feel emotions so purely, it's just so amazing to watch. Thank you for this reaction and your interpretations, they really help inform my own. ❤️
🥰🥰🥰 thank you
FAVORITE… Wasteland Baby! Check out his interviews- Francesca is an extrapolation from another story. His mom is still alive, and an artist. Love you discovering Hozier ❤❤ Thank you for giving me a new level of interpretation ‼️
ok amazing glad you enjoyed the vid! :)
Watching you experience this for the first time is giving me so much joy. Hozier puts out such beautiful, moving albums. All things end is my favorite.
im sure someone has already mentioned it, but Hozier started in an interview that the album takes heavy influence from Dante’s Inferno, even having songs grouped on the vinyl under each circle of hell. I loved seeing the lyrics from your perspective though, just shows the endless layers of depth hidden in the songs ❤
What an incredibly connected, heartfelt, observant and thoughtful reaction. I loved revisiting this album through your eyes, it made a lot of the themes and references in the lyrics click for me in a way I didn't pick up on in my own first listen. Just a really spot-on analysis and commentary, amazing
“Anything But” is a really interesting song in the sense that it can be interpreted in a few ways. You picked up on the speaker loving someone so much they ‘wouldn’t get a kick’ if he were a stampede or ‘a riptide wouldn’t take them out’ but the actual meaning is that he doesn’t want anything to do with them. Such as when he says ‘if I had deaths job, you would live forever’, almost like a little joke.
ooh interesting! yeah it is such an interesting lyric
My favourites are Francesca, First Time, Abstract, I Carrion and First Light - in no particular order I love them all. Tbf each time I listen to it I find a new favourite
yeah i felt that today in was trying to pin down my top 5 and it was very very hard haha
I have seen Hozier in concert twice. When you think he sounds good on record, he blows you away. He sounds BETTER live than on recordings and his published songs. It's raw, beautiful, impressive, and the best voice I have ever heard live. He doesn't edit his voice in any way when recording.
The last part of Unknow always stunning me, because that last sound that it can be hear is the same that a vinil disc make when you finish one face, when the spike reach the end of the face. So, to me, he add that sound to the end of the song to mark that everything that comes later is the beginning of another history, of a new chapter in his life.
my top 5:
1. to someone from a warm climate
2. abstract
3. i, carrion
4. who we are
5. first light
i was SOBBING the first time i heard the album, and trying to keep it quiet cause my husband was sleeping right next to me. i felt so spiritually fed by this album and it resonates so closely in a way i cant describe. im so excited to see him in concert in october 😭
I second this emotion! First listen really did bring me to tears. Can't wait for Sept 29 concert. Just wish he would do the whole album live. That would be worth another tour just for all the songs. I really see this album as a great concept and meant to listen to it in whole!
i need to look and see if hes performing in london!!
I actually think Unknown/Nth is the only song where he wishes he's never known the lover. It's like they betrayed the singer, and he's saying, "I thought we knew each other, but you never understood me, really." the lyrics "That I'd walk so far just to take/The injury of finally knowing you" and "There are some people, love, who are better unknown" Make me think this way
Thats what i thought too
it was truly an experience. i've only known take me to church and blood upon the snow, but this was my doorway into the full world of hozier. It felt so nice, and emotional listening to this while driving down the country roads while the golden hour sun was shining on me.
For me it’s:
1. Who We Are
2. Son of Nyx
3. Abstract
4. Butchered Tongue
5. All Things End
But it’s so hard to choose honestly
I can’t wait for you to figure out the Dante’s inferno, third policeman, and a modest proposal references because the lyrics get even deeper (and eat your young makes way more sense lol)
PLEASE listen to his other albums. He is an unparalleled lyricist
Hozier is magic.
All of the songs in this album is so personal to me, specially Francesca, unknown, first time and butchered tongue( cause they tried to butchered my mother tongue as well and some how they were successful)
The album is based on Dante’s inferno and some references is are in this book ( for example Francesca)
I love hozier, his songs, his voice and his performance. He is a gem in this dark and cruel world.
Lovely to watch your experience of listening to the album. Joy and heartbreak.
My top 5 are definitely
1. who we are
2. unkown
3. Francesca
4. Abstract
5. First Light
Your reaction to Butchered tongue is exactly the same as mine 😭❤️
I listened this album at the midnight, such an amazing experience
absolutely beautiful isnt it?
The ah ah ah ah part in Who We Are takes my soul out of my body out to space for a second
loved your reaction!! it's hard to find someone who really dives into the lyrics and origins of the songs and gives honest and raw opinions about them these days. keep up the good work! subscribed :))
thank you!! it seems like a lot of creators are all flocking towards the tiktok style shallow but high engagement stuff so im glad you appreciate my slightly deeper style :)
Top 5 you ask? well well well...
1.) To someone from a warm climate (wow)
2.) First light (wow)
3.)Damage get's done (brandi carlile favs)
4.) Unknown/ nth
5.)Eat your young
the two wows are interchangeable
To someone from a warm climate is really something. My goodness!😭
@@catstreetlab1218 In to someone from a warm climate i can feel every emotion as if I wrote the song and it is so powerful!
Saw him on Tuesday, and he mentioned the flowers were left in his house whilst he was gone and they were the only thing that occupied his house when he came back if I'm not mistaken. And most of these songs were written over lockdown (also his mum was at the concert)
This album makes me feel all the emotions. Particularly Francesca, Abstract (Polychomp), To Someone from a Warm a Climate, and Through me (The flood). To me, this album says everything I've been feeling for the past two years since my first love died by drowning. It brings back so many memories and emotions and I'm so greatful for Andrew.
oh wow thank you for sharing ❤️
Loved hearing your thoughts and crying along with you!! Hozier is my favorite artist by far.
In Butchered Tongue, not only is he talking about the tragedy of Irish history but he's connecting with a broader indigenous experience. Hushpukena and Appalachicola are towns in Michigan and Florida that retain names from indigenous languages. Hozier talked about speaking to people from those places and asking what the names meant and having no one know.
Man, yeah, I have so much I could say about every song here. Hozier albums always send me down research spirals and I end up learning about history and poetry and music from all the references he makes, lol. You can analyze them for hours and keep finding new depth.
I'm really enjoying your reaction here and especially your comments on production (which I know nothing about).
You have touched on what makes him so special. Not only does he steal your soul but he captures your mind too!
Your reaction is so beautiful, I love Hozier! As a listener you could enjoy it on a surface level, but theres so much layers to the songs, like Eat Young Young is an allegory to the military industrial complex and how the people in positions of power uses the working class to enrich themselves and yet it sounds so sexy
In case anyone’s wondering what De Selby means, someone made a really good comment explaining it on the lyric video to De Selby (part 2). Basically though De Selby is a character created by Flann O’Brien who is known for their philosophical beliefs.
oh cool! Hozier seems to be insanely well read!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who can be brought to tears with his voice alone, like he could be singing in a language I don't understand in the slightest, and the way his voice rings out in some lines, I just can't help it
Your reactions are my favourite! Thank you for your emotional vulnerability. Love from Finland 🇫🇮 You actually hear the music and lyrics, not just listen
Francesca takes a lot of inspiration from true history and Dante’s inferno it’s well worth looking into
"butchered tongue" is (probably) my favorite song of this collection, and i don't know you but kind of love you now for your reaction to it.
'Who We Are' has got to be my all time favourite of his- something about it really reaches to my soul. However, I would eat up anything he produces lol, he can do no wrong.
It was such an emotional ride listening to this album for the first time and I had a great time going on that journey again with your reaction to it. Just signed up for the patreon so I can watch the uncut version. Loved hearing you talk about the lyrics. I would be super keen to see you react to his other albums.
aw amazing thanks for joining!! Im gonna do the others soon so keep an eye out!
I would love to see you react to his other albums! You should really start with his self titled then move onto Wasteland, Baby!
I know what you mean about being scared to touch take me to church but I think an in depth dive into the song will surprise you!
yeah definitely doing this now this album is actually insanely beautiful and i need to hear the rest
heyy my reaction to his first album is already up on Patreon and be on YT soon hopefully! :) www.patreon.com/luscent
it's really interesting to see how you interpret the songs without the context of dantes inferno - it makes for some really insightful and beautiful observations xx
personally, i LOVED this album, i adored all the songs, but my favorites are:
1. First Light
2. Butchered Tongue
3. Son of Nyx,
4. How the Damage Gets Done (controversial i know)
5. Francesca
much love x
aw glad i offered a different perspective! also I love how the damage gets done!