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afro-elf · 6 years

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How to Listen to Hozier: A Guide in Escapism with The Troubadour Hero

@farrahda5hy wrote this days ago and it’s every thought i’ve ever had about this fucking album and i really feel understood

The narrative I am proposing is personal to me, and I do not claim that it is proper or correct way to listen to this album. However, I will be providing commentary on how I compose this specific narrative. These steps are really boiling down how I perceive things so see them as the end all be all. The instructions are comprised on two main factors: one’s beloved and the constructed world that exists in one’s mind.

1. First, identify your beloved. I don’t have a significant other which is why I probably am going to choose Sweet Andy Hozier himself. Also, he’s a neat guy and quite a charmer and activist…etc. This step should be easier for those are in relationships. As reductive as this may sound, it is important that one chose a few words that summarize the relationship with one’s significant other. 2. The self-construction is really only important to listen experience. It’s really where your mind goes to when you’re listening to the album. For those who are taking the beloved to the narrator (Andy as Narrator maybe) approach, I assume this step would be harder or potentially easier as one’s mind is free to run wild as you are not tied down to reality. As a creative writer, I live and thrive in this space.

I am choosing the words: Fluid, Bold, Chaotic, Sarcastic, Overwhelming, and Passionate.

As for this world construction, I usually go back to my hometown within the Appalachian mountains, specifically the Smokey mountains. For me, this place represents a mysticism that I have created for myself. Honestly, it is quite the opposite of the Bog People villas described in the album, but there’s a large number Irish descendants in this area. But like I said, it’s more personal and obviously idealistic. I don’t care for my hometown, but I’m in love with how it made me feel and the bastardized version of it that exists in my head now that somehow blurred into my new city.

Taking these basic elements, I’m forming this new track list organization. Hold on to your hats, it’s going to get fucking wild and possibly a bit fanfic, so as Griffin McElroy says “just fucking play in this space with me.”

Track one: Take Me to Church.

Yes, don’t at me. This song is in fact the first song on the album, but I think it sets the tone for the narrative. Two lines that stick out are “She’s the giggle at a funeral” and “My church offers no absolutes.” Honestly, these lines really stick out to me. Immediately, it identifies the woman in the relationship as other to what is excepted in society. Quite frankly as black woman, I’m kind always in that category, you know. Not to mention the hella gospel tones and such. The second line mentioned out of context is very much a declaration of acceptance which is bomb, but also naive in a way in a new love sense. Because of course within relationships, there are aspects that are fine in the beginning or on some levels but cause problems in the long-run. For me, I identify as the woman who the subject of the song. Honestly, I’m that gal who’s going to say wise shit to you, but will also doubt herself. But I’m a “fuck what the world thinks” person and overcompensate by existing in this “let’s take down the world” ideology.

Track two: Jackie and Wilson

This song is so damn playful, and it’s this feeling of hopefulness and disappointment in a way. Really the entire breakdown of the song throws your head into a loop. There’s this one-sided commitment, and I guess when I get to that part of the song I’m always thinking “yeah, bud, I like you, but shit, this thing can’t last forever right? Don’t tie yourself down to me because woof…buddy, I’m a roadtrip you do not want to go on.” The song is trying to come to terms with a partner who isn’t giving their 150%. Also, for my mental music video, Hozier has his hair down the entire car ride and sunglasses on, and I’m sticking my whole body out the car with an lit cigarette in my left hand while we do donuts in Kroger parking lot.

Track Three: Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene

This song is another one where the breakdown of the song is the most powerful. Really the song speaks for its self. The relationship just is toxic and overwhelming and in need of escape. Every time I listen to this song, I imagine myself in a basement at a drum set. It didn’t really occur to me that it’s the chaotic feeling and the need to escape that I have latch on to.

Track four: Someone New

Forget everything you know about this song, okay. Because this song is literally the “Take Me or Leave Me” moment. Literally until the breakdown of the song, I imagine the beloved singing the verses rather than Sweet Andy. It’s very much a “we’re not working. We’re trying other people.”

Two things I want to highlight: the lyrics of the breakdown. This first part will not make as much sense until I talk about the next song. But Jealous!Hozier is a fucking thing. I find this interesting, but until then, there’s this “I’m level headed and open about my emotions” air about him. But this delightful pang of jealousy adds dimension to what I call the Hozier Troubadour Hero. The female character (or the one I have constructed in my own head) as main vocalist is just as level-headed and falsely self-aware. Then there’s this arrow of “oh yeah we’re doing this thing and seeing other people, but I’m not happy about seeing you with other people.”

The line “Love with every stranger. The stranger the better.” I love this wordplay. But against the line “how pure how sweet in love Aretha that you would pray for him,” it’s fucking taunting and bitter as hell. Really, starting the album of with Take Me to Church reflects this disregard for organized religion, which is no stranger to Hozier, but the beloved seems to still exists in that sphere. But I also want to read in another way that it’s bittersweet to the Hozier!character that this beloved still prays for him although she’s involved with another person. I don’t know. It’s interesting.

Quickly, I want to highlight the other vocal overlay that actually comes between the two lines mentioned. I get this air of confrontation and then the “NO ITS COOL IM HAPPY THAT YOUR HAPPY WITH SOMEONE NEW”. Once again, I imagine this argument taking place in an apartment living room.

Here, I would like to introduce a distinction between the characters. The Hozier character is very much fluid that is very self contained chaos whereas the female character is very much open chaos. As a fire signs, I totally get that. Hozier being a water sign is very fluid in what we stereotypically thing as fluid, but we also don’t always see water as destructive in comparison to fire.

Track Five: From Eden

To this day, I still wonder if this is a love song. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be. But I find this song to be one of my favorites.

I want to flip the imagery of Jackie and Wilson and delve more into the Chaotic!Hozier characterization. Obviously, this song is very upfront with the Garden of Eden serpent allusion. This song exists in the uncertainty of relationship. The “are we or aren’t we” spheres. To sum it up, this is a conversation happening in a car. Oddly, person in the passenger seat (Hozier) is leading the conversation and the beloved as the driver really doesn’t want to have this conversation.

The ending of first verse give us little snippets, and it appears that the beloved flaws are being pointed out or Hozier is anticipating the responses from the driver. But also let’s return back to this serpent imagery. Hozier aligns himself with the serpent in Eden, so the idea of corruption is very highly in this imagined car ride.

When I first heard this song, I got the “bad boy who doesn’t let everyone know he’s a bad boy” vibe.” I really gripped on to this concept; along with other religious allusions, I really don’t know how to objectively look at them. For me, it’s a little “Walk to Remember-ish” where the preachers daughter is in love with the bad boy. I don’t know, but really at the heart of it, the narrative boils down to “I’m going to corrupt this persons core, and I don’t have remorse at all.” Understanding what this concept means on personal level will determine whether it’s a love song or whether it’s an act of selfishness disguised as love.

Track Six: Foreigners God

I’ll admit. I didn’t really get this song after my initial listen to the album. I think for me it’s just too personal. I grew up in a Christian household, going to a very charismatic church. So the line that really sticks out it’s very simple “It’s Foreign to me”. I’ll just leave that there.

It’s really an outsider looking in and not understanding and forming their own opinions. While “Take Me to Church” is very much a “sex in an abandoned church (or whatever) type of jam that highlights the oppressive aspects of organized religion, “Foreigners God” really displays the frustration of separating the comforting parts from all the oppressive aspects.

This scene takes place in the abandoned church, and I want to react in this way of “God is here” in this desolation that some people don’t understand. Going back to that fire fluidity, I just imagine myself dancing in this church with like a song under my breath and releasing all this anger I’ve shared with no one. Then Sweet Andy Hozier is just watching in the door frame in the background. Not even sitting in the pew.

Track Seven: Cherry Wine

I think I’m just punching a window out. Car window. A church window. A bedroom window.

This pivotal point of realization that “hey maybe you’re the one that’s holding you back and lashing out at people isn’t the best.” But the tragedy is there’s still a lack of self awareness. Like you’re angry but you still put blame on other people. Yeah…

Track Eight: Sedated

This song is another one of those songs that I interpret as the point of view of the beloved based on the breakdown of the song, but I still want to look at the Hozier character POV

“Darling, don’t stand there watching won’t you come save me from this. Darling, don’t you join in you’re supposed to drag me away from this.”

That’s desperation. That’s a little toxic in a way. Expecting a person to save you, but yet, forgetting that person may need saving themselves is selfish. What makes Jackie and Wilson so tragic is this naivety. “She’s going to save me call me ‘baby’ run her hands to my hair.” Yeah, that’s sweet and cute, but what are you doing in return. Falling in love with this idealized strong woman, but then denying her the opportunity to be vulnerable is very much the corruption I spoke about in From Eden.

Honestly, the worst part about hiding vulnerability is when it rushes out like a dam breaking or when a fire is no longer contained.

Track Nine: Arsonist’s Lullaby

I call it the pagan ritual version of Foreigners God or when Chaotic!Hozier is at his most powerful and vulnerable. Why? Is it the relinquishing of this vulnerability for his beloved to use as her discretion or is it his acknowledgment of hers and offering to aid her in channeling it? Yes, but it’s also the fire within him, the passion, the chaos, and the darkness that fuels him. He is both talking to the beloved and himself.

For the sake of the conversation, this scene also takes place in the same abandoned church, and Hozier gets up to where he stage used to be; barefoot and hair pulled back. At first, he’s swaying gently, fluid like as flame is first lit with back facing the congregation. He’s like this for a few moments and then he’s twirling around the abandoned stage until he’s almost stomping his feet. Thump. Thump. Thump. Suddenly, everything changes and his hair falls out the ponytail and turns around and the stumps are more violent, yet the dance is just as fluid until he steps down from stage…the intense eye contact is fucking overwhelming. He just walks out the abandoned church leaving his shoes like some awoken wild child.

Track Ten: My Love will Never Die

Do you like blues? Welp. This song speaks for its fucking self. Do you want Sad!Hozier crooning in a room by himself? Because that’s what he’s doing, babe.

Track Eleven: In the Woods Somewhere I get a lot of fever dream vibes from this song, so I can only imagine it as something just not real. So I present you with an actual dream I had about Hozier I had once.

Pretty much, I dreamt Hozier was this shapeshifter who turned into a fox that was terrorizing the town in his fox state. It was more a vigilante like thing, but it was tragic because I had to kill the fox out of mercy.

The song also talks about a similar scene. So mercy killing when you’re in love is very much something that hard to describe, but you have to do it to the other person when you love them. I don’t know. So just imagine Hozier shooting up out of dead sleep fever dream.

Track Twelve: Run

Also a ritual dance, but also possibly a fever dream? This song introduces the field/nature imagery to relationship narrative. The metronome in the background mirrors the jerky dancing of the beloved from the Foreigners God portion but the tempo of the drums gives rhythm to the fluidity of the Hozier!Character. Both of these two sounds represent being grounded, and they work in unison. This unison is a first really. Playing that fever dream, the song seems to end abruptly and I think that’s the true awakening of the Hozier!Character physically and emotionally.

The dream itself is the couple dancing in a field together in the afternoon. I could go further with this dream, but I’m going explain it as actual event later.

Track Thirteen: It Will Come Back

The best song on the album, not to mention a song of seduction. It’s an unintentional sexy song. I wish it were a duet or at least have more prominent female background vocals. While seduction isn’t the best term for the overall narrative, what I am trying to say is a song of pleading for so many things: to be let go, to be let in, or to be cast aside to make it easier to move on. Wild Eye, Sleep-Deprived Hozier is walking around barefoot at three am across town to reconcile his feelings, and then he’s just singing and howling outside my house? Of course, I’m going to let him in. “Don’t you hear me howling, babe?” The faded of the last line is so interesting, and it brings me back to Sedated’s line “I keep catching little words, but the meanings thin.” I just occurred to me is that the expression of vulnerability is very metaphorically, but on the literal manifestations are different. The Hozier!Character is very much a “tell me with your words”; the beloved is very much “tell me with your actions. “Don’t you hear me howling, babe” takes on another meaning in which the question is literally “you’ve seen me vulnerable, but did you hear what I actually said. I love you so much that it’s animalistic and consuming the humanity in me.” That’s oddly beautiful.

Track Fourteen: To Be Alone

So I bet you were wondering when I was going to talk more about the location part. Well, here is it. I grew up in the middle of the Bible Belt. Sometimes when you’re not conforming you feel like everyone is looking at you whether they are or not. At on a more concrete level, my hometown used to have a festival called the Fall Festival, and they would have a series of out door concerts of various artists. This event was usually held downtown. Honestly, I’m not to big on crowds, but at the same time, I adore being alone in a crowd or with one person while out in public. To Be Alone captured that vibe very well. Returning the relationship, at this point, the air of ambiguity of relationship still exists; however, the relationship is heading toward stability in my opinion. I just love the image of Chaotic!Hozier dancing in a crowd simultaneously ignoring everyone else while be fully away of the contained space he’s got to be close with his lover. Then just going the fuck home for sex just because the mood allowed it to feel sacred in some way. Maybe it was the dream of the two lovers dancing in the field.

Track Fifteen: In A Week

The only duet on this album! UGH SO DAMN GOOD! A lovely balances of vocals; they are playing off each other. It’s very much stereotypical “we finish each other’s sentences” concept but actualized very well. So maybe the sex didn’t happen after the festival, but that closeness and intimate is still present. Despite being allergic to grass, I like lying in the grass. I also like the macabre. So nothing is out of place, and it’s all intimate joke to describe a seemingly tragic love that is no longer tragic.

Track Sixteen: Like Real People Do

Something tragic about that this song (it’s probably the true story behind it) but also romantic. As the penultimate song in the album, it’s very much the final acceptance of all the flaws, frustrations, and the opposition within. Not to be sexy, this song is the foreplay to the final song. This is the outside conversation on the porch before you invite your lover into the house to stay the night and lead your lover upstairs or to the couch or the floor Whatever floats your passionate boat.

Track Seventeen: Work Song

It’s the only song on the album that doesn’t seem to have baggage behind it. It’s purely romantic. I put this song in opposition to Take Me to Church really. I imagine that’s why I put it at the the end. This song is true acceptance not the fake acceptance in Take Me to Church. The line “Heaven and Hell were words to me” signifies this point. Everything I’ve described throughout this narrative as been about duality and finding where the lines blur for this relationship to be functional. “Work Song” finally rejects that ideology and allows the relationship to heal and flourish. So in this moment, let’s return back to this abandoned church that this couple has made their own sanctuary (face it they are fucking weird) but it’s not broken down or stuffy. It’s homely as they camp out for the night making their bed at the abandoned altar. The couple makes love in the moonlight that peeks in through the shattered window. The whole damn cosmos witness the rebellion that manifests in their love. So yeah, I’m curious to what the narrative of the reverse of this track list. I didn’t have this narrative planned out in my head. It just came organically as I was writing. Honestly if i had written my original idea it would have been more fantasy driven and a lot more Chaotic!Hozier. If you’re curious about that let me know. Also, I will try to do one of the original track list because it’s more of a challenge.

#farrahda5hy #submission #hozier

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adrianalxander · 5 years

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Reputation

So I decided to review all of her albums! I really enjoyed Reputation whole-heartedly, I must say. So here we go!

Highest score: 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

1. ...Ready For It? // 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

Let me tell you, RFI DID NOT COME TO PLAY. What an opener for an album. I remember when I first heard this song, they played a snippet before it was released on some college football commercial and I just about fell out of my seat. I wasn’t the biggest fan of LWYMMD so hearing this was music to my ears! Still one of my favs off this album, no doubt. Pretty sure she’s talking about the beginning stages of the relationship she’s in now who she pretty much wrote a whole album for. Good for you Tay, good for you.

2. End Game // 🐍🐍🐍

So who would of ever thought we’d see Future on a Taylor Swift track? I was dumbfounded and curious all at the same time. Ed, a previous collaborator was a nice contribution but Future still sounds a little off. All together, this song is alright. I was never turning the volume up in excitement when it came on the radio and when it pops up on my shuffle, sometimes I do skip it. It’s a neat experiment but just okay for me. Lyrically, she’s just talking about being someone’s number one biotch, okay? She’s wants to be your A-team (an Ed reference which I thought was cute), we know who she’s talking about!

3. I Did Something Bad // 🐍🐍🐍🐍

This shit goes hard! My mouth nearly dropped to the floor on my first listen. Such a cool song, so different for her. Reputation was definitely her most darkest but daring album in her discography and this song is a prime example of that. She’s pretty much saying look, I mess up but it feels kinda good. I kind of like being the bad girl, alright KANYE!? just kidding. It could be about him, or about an ex-Lover. Who knows, bomb ass song though.

4. Don’t Blame Me // 🐍🐍🐍

Yet another unexpected club banger track from Taylor, this time she’s saying look, your love has me doing crazy things, it’s not my fault! Damn! It’s a pretty sweet song! My huge issue is this song resembles so much of Hoziers “Take Me To Church” instrumentals, that’s all I really think about when I hear this song, which sucks because I’ve always wanted to love it more. It’s still good, just some of the originality gets lost with every listen.

5. Delicate // 🐍🐍🐍🐍

Delicate was the first song on my first initial listen, that i vibed to the most. I really enjoy this song and how easy breezy it is. Taylor sounds smooth and collected and we can’t help but pay attention to the lyrics. Another song that sounds like the beginning of her relationship that she’s still in. She’s talking about how much she likes this guy and how he must really like her, considering all the negative attention she was getting from the press. It’s a chill song and still something I listen to everytime it comes on.

6. Look What You Made Me Do // 🐍🐍

Holy crap, this music video was dope. It was when badass Taylor came into the picture and we were all shocked and living for it at the same time. She is confronting all her haters, chanting how much she doesn’t like them and yea, she messed up but ya’ll did too. Where’s your ownership, huh? HA. Even though I did enjoy this side of her, the song was underwhelming for a first single. It’s funny because it’s rare that I actually liked any of her first singles. This was another disappointing start sonically , the lyrical content is juicy but still falls a little flat for me.

7. So It Goes... // 🐍🐍🐍🐍

Let me tell you, this track grew on me big time. When I first heard it, definitely was one of my least favorites, but now I jam out to it. It’s sexual, it’s fun, talking about scratching her mans back, Tay whattttt? I really like this song, time was on its side for sure.

8. Gorgeous // 🐍🐍🐍

When I found out Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lovely’s baby was the sweet little voice that started this number, I thought it was so cute! Put a little extra lovin’ in the song! The song is pretty straight forward, she thinks this mans hot when she’s already with someone else. Bad bad Taylor, she definitely was using that title for every reason in the book. Overall, it’s a simple cute song. Not a favorite, but I listen to it.

9. Getaway Car // 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

Hands down, favorite track on the album. I love love love this song so much, I lose my breath everytime it comes on. And for so many reasons too. The production and just everytime she works with Jack Antonoff, it’s pure gold. And the lyrical content man! She’s pretty much talking about a relationship that started out in jeapordy. They met when one of them was still seeing someone and she’s pretty much saying, look, this started out wrong and there will never be a happy ending for us so I have to chuck the dueces, okay!? Ugh and the last 30 seconds of the song have me going with that build up. Taylor did that with this song.

10. King of My Heart // 🐍🐍🐍🐍

Really love this song sonically! It’s the underdog of the album for sure and the lyrical content is pretty cute. Again, must be about the boyfriend she’s with now, cause he was really making her feel those butterflies in this song! Nothing really much to say, a very solid track.

11. Dancing With Our Hands Tied // 🐍🐍🐍

So this was one of those songs I started skipping in the beginning...until I started to really fall in love with the bridge. The song is actually quite beautiful, just not a huge fan of the production. But it definitely grew on me. The song is quite sad, talking about a relationship that will never work. She stripped this song down in her set on the tour, I liked it much better live.

12. Dress // 🐍

There’s always one on every Taylor album except 1989, that I dislike, and this track is it. Never connected with this song and I don’t know why. It’s definitely her most frisky song, basically talking about getting freaky with her lover. But I don’t know, nothing in this song works for me. Skip it all the time.

13. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things //

🐍🐍🐍🐍

Woooowiiee! The first lingo we here from the most prominent diss track on the whole album. I enjoy the lyrics so much in this one. It’s fun, the production is all over the place and in the best way possible. Definitely a hand delivered diss to Kanye and Kim and she doesn’t give an F! Love this one!

14. Call It What You Want // 🐍🐍🐍🐍

In my opinion, the best ballad on the album, this is also I think the most beautiful song on the album as well. It’s very stripped and her voice is the most significant instrument in its entirety. She’s talking about how she stepped up and found herself someone who gets her, who accepts her for her past and realized all the shit she went through to finally be with someone like him. It’s raw for this album, but a standout for sure.

15. New Years Day // 🐍🐍

I never really understood why this is the closing track let alone on the album. It doesn’t sonically fit on here at all. Lyrically, the song is nice. To me, she’s talking about a relationship that is just beginning and how she has hopes for their future. It’s cute in some ways, but I felt like this was something that could’ve been out on Red.

Ultimately, Reputation killed the game. It’s a solid record and stands out from Taylor’s discography as her most experimental one to date! We like dark Taylor!!

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