Unreal Unearth, Hozier’s first extended release since his 2019 album Wasteland, Baby!, will be released later this year. Until then we have been blessed with three new singles off his EP released today. Eat Your Young, All Things End, and Through Me (The Flood). This drop also happens to be on the Irish singer’s 33rd birthday and St Patrick's Day! Join Georgia Dalglish as she takes us through Hozier's latest offerings...
Eat Your Young introduces a dark sultry feel, very reminiscent of It Will Come Back from his 2014 debut. Not only about personal desire and lust, the first track is packed with biblical references – based on part of Dante’s epic poem Divine Comedy (La Commedia) which traces the journey from darkness and error to revelation. Starting with themes of gluttony in the open lines “I’m starvin’, darlin’ / Let me put my lips to something / Let me wrap my teeth around the world”. This theme of hunger and desire for something continues throughout. “Pull up the ladder when the flood comes / Throw enough rope until the legs have swung.” Continues the religious theme – perhaps a reference to Jacob’s ladder or Noah and the flood. There is not much variation stylistically in this track, it keeps the same vibe throughout, which I think gives the EP a strong opening. The ending consists of a lighter piano and string orchestra which really drives home the religious theme, it feels like something you’d here from a church choir. Hozier starts off this EP dark, beautiful and lustful.
All Things End, the second track shifts us towards a more R&B sound. A chilled percussion is at the heart of this song with Hozier’s vocals floating nicely over the top – which sets up the latter part of the songs build-up well. This song is extremely vulnerable and sombre for the most part. The heart wrenching lines “If there was anyone to ever get through this life / With their heart still intact, they didn't do it right.” This song is essentially saying that endings are inevitable and so is heartbreak. Fans on Twitter write “Hozier was sick for All Things End, I cannot stop listening”. The second half of the this love ballad picks up with an uplifting gospel style choir which is frankly insane and entirely transcendent! This song is about how we can begin anew and that life can be cyclical, definitely keeping in theme with Hozier’s existentialism which we tend to see in his music.
"Hozier’s writing is pure poetry and should be treated as such!"
Through Me (The Flood), the third and final track on this EP brings us back to his usual style of music, slow and mystical to begin with then picking up in the chorus with backing vocals from a choir (something I think we can expect to hear a lot in the upcoming album). This song is a metaphor for defeat but the ending realisation that he [the narrator] is greater than himself. Again with the theme of accepting an end, and life and death. Hozier’s writing is pure poetry and should be treated as such! You can clearly hear his accent in this song which I think is a nice touch. Fans are saying “Through Me (The Flood) is the most Hozier song to ever exist […] no song will ever be more Hozier” and “Hozier can resurrect me back from death. Through Me is sooo good.”
This limited release from Hozier puts him in good stead for his upcoming album. With Eat Your Young being the fan favourite I think we can expect an album filled with layered meanings which might turn us all into philosophers after listening!
Georgia Dalglish
Edited by: Ali Glen
Cover and in-article image courtesy of Genius. Video courtesy of HozierVEVO on YouTube.
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